


Break Free

by obwjam



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Borrowers - All Media Types
Genre: Borrowers - Freeform, G/T, GT, Gen, Giant/Tiny, Reader-Insert, borrower au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-06-01 04:18:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obwjam/pseuds/obwjam
Summary: Borrower au in which Borrower!Peter Parker gets caught by Tony Stark in his lab. takes place after the first Avengers and everyone is living together in Avengers Tower in NYC because they're the best dysfunctional family





	1. Caught by surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope y'all enjoy!!! i have six chapters written already that i will be posting in the coming days, so look out for that! this chapter is mainly fluff

“Shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh SHIT!” Peter cried as he stumbled. His heart was pounding out of his chest as he tried to break free of the bubble he was trapped in. Each punch he threw resulted in a sharp  _zap_  to his hand. He ignored the pain.

“Go find stuff in the lab, they said, you won’t get  _caught_ , they said…” he frantically whispered to himself as he walked aimlessly around his new prison. He had come scary close to being caught before, but his agility always gave him the upper hand.

Three-inch-tall agility couldn’t save him against giant, advanced tech.

His breath stopped as soon as he saw the shadow approaching. It was him.

Tony, for his part, couldn’t believe it. Borrowers were notoriously stealthy and were masters at staying secret. It’s why he was one of the few who knew about them. He had been so focused on being Iron Man that his attempts to capture a Borrower took a back seat.

But he finally did it.

The device was simple—it detected motion and generated an electric field that would keep anything small enough inside. The electricity did nothing to him, but to someone that size… there may be a slight sting.

Tony bent down, taking his purple-colored glasses off as he got at eye level with his prize. The Borrower was small… smaller than he had anticipated. Upon staring at him for a few seconds, he realized he had captured a kid. A weird feeling briefly washed over him… guilt? No, it didn’t matter. He had no intentions of hurting him.

Peter was frozen. He couldn’t even find the right thoughts to think. Tony Stark was looking straight at him with a twinkle in his eye, his mouth slightly agape from the wonder of seeing such a small being. Peter could see every little movement—the twitching of his lips, the movement of his eyes (fixated on him), every time his brows furrowed and the subtlest change in expression.

Tony was waiting for the kid to do something.  _Say_ something. He knew he had just totally caught him off guard and was probably terrified, but… he had to do something else but  _stand there._

Tony went to reach his hand to the power source of his device to turn it off, but before he could even get there, the kid moved.

“PLEASE Mr. Stark, don’t hurt me! Please! I-I wasn’t going to take anything from your lab! I—I was just e-exploring! Please!”

Tony was confused for a moment, but realized him moving his hand must have looked so different down there. Slowly, he brought his hand back to his side, staring at the kid in fascination. He was cowering now, hands on his head and his arms protecting his face. He was so occupied with actually capturing the little guy that he never stopped to think how he would react.

_Did he just call me… Mr. Stark?_

“…you know my name?” that sounded a lot more naïve than he wanted to.

Peter looked up. Stark looked genuinely surprised.

“W-well… yeah, e-everyone knows wh-who you are,” he said, stumbling over his words.

Tony took a moment to think.  _He actually knows my name._

“What’s yours?”

“P-Peter, s-sir.”

Tony frowned. “Did you just call me  _sir_?”

Peter couldn’t stop his trembling. He clenched his hands, palms sweaty. Did he just piss Tony Stark off?

“Buddy, you don’t have to call me that. Come on.”

Peter didn’t have time to fret over semantics. His life was at stake.

“W…what are you going to do with me?” His face was getting hot.

 _That is an excellent question,_ Tony thought. He… hadn’t really come up with a game plan for once he caught a Borrower.

“Well, there’s dissection. Oh, and  _tons_ of experiments. I’ll probably keep you in a jar on my nightstand, too. There’s so many people who would love to see you.”

Tony never thought about the consequences of his jokes, but this one practically had the kid ready to jump off the table. Peter’s eyes were wide and Tony swore he could see the sweat dripping down his face.

“Relax, little guy, I’m just joking,” he said. “I’ll try and get you home by dinner, though.” 

Tony was proud of himself for that follow-up quip until he realized that the kid was probably  _out getting the dinner._

Peter couldn’t hold it back anymore. As soon as the first tear escaped his eye, a waterfall followed. He slumped down in his place, burying his head between his knees.

“No, n-n-n-no, kid, c’mon, don’t… don’t do that,” Tony said desperately, almost sounding disappointed. He flinched as Peter’s soft cries floated up from the table.

“I was just kidding around! You can’t take a jo—”

“I-I-I’m going to-to die,” Peter sobbed. “I-I don’t want to die-e-e-e.” His breaths were choppy.

All Tony could do was stare. Why the hell did these people send a kid to do their dirty work? Now he had to deal with him.

“Come on, little guy, I’m not going to—”

“They won’t… they won’t even notice I’m gone…” Peter sniffled.

Okay. Something was up.

“Woah-woah woah woah woah, hold up. What did you just say?”

Peter didn’t respond. He just kept crying.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Hey!” he snapped his fingers, causing Peter to jump and look up. “This,” he waved his hands around in Peter’s direction, “is ridiculous. Just… talk to me.”

Peter stared. That was a step up from crying.

“What you just said. They won’t notice you’re gone? Who is they?”

Peter’s eyes shifted to the tabletop. He had let that one slip loose, huh. Now he had to explain his sob story to Tony freaking Stark, who couldn’t care less about other people’s sobbing or stories.

“My clan,” Peter said quietly. He was surprised Tony could even hear him. “They… sent me out to get… scraps, f-from your lab, so… so we could build more equipment. But they… they don’t care for me much.”

Tony leaned in slightly, causing Peter to shrink back on instinct. “Now why is that?”

Peter sighed. “Because they know I have nowhere else to go.”

Peter paused before continuing.

“My parents were killed when I was a kid. Nobody knows what happened to them, but one day they went out borrowing and just… never came back. I wandered around until I found a new clan to take me in. And since I’m the youngest, they make me do all the borrowing.”

Man. This kid has been through more than any three-inch-tall person living in a gigantic world should have to.

“I can’t believe I’m telling you all this. You’re… you’re Tony Stark!” he said, standing up as he gesticulated. “Why would the most famous man on earth care about… me…”

Suddenly, Tony had a thought. He laid his hand out on the table, palm up, expecting the kid to just merrily climb on.

Peter let out a small shriek when the hand landed next to him with a thunderous thud. He had never gotten so close to one before.

“C’mon, you’re gonna leave me hanging like this? Don’t you want to see what the world is like from up here?”

There was something so… charming about the way Tony spoke. He sounded snarky, but there was something more to it… like he wanted Peter just as much as Peter wanted Tony.

Almost reluctantly, Peter climbed onto the giant’s palm. He had no trouble getting on, but as soon as Tony began to move, he felt like he was going to throw up.

“Oh, don’t get sick on me, kid. You may be small but that doesn’t make it any less gross,” Tony mumbled jokingly.

Peter got over his brief sick feelings very quickly once he laid eyes on the world around him. Sure, he had been up on tables before, but this… this was different. He could see everything in front of him. He could turn his head and see all corners of the room. It was even brighter up here!

Tony allowed himself to smile. It was so adorable watching this kid be fascinated at seeing things five feet off the ground.

“Wow,” Peter breathed. He turned up to Tony, smiling for the first time in what felt like forever. “I-It’s amazing, Mr. Stark!”

Tony couldn’t help but beam back down at his little friend. “Pretty cool, huh?”

Peter could do this for hours. Of course, he didn’t have that kind of time. He had already stayed out longer than he said he would. The clan was surely going to kill him.

Suddenly, the hand holding Peter began to move again, this time laterally. Peter let out a small “woah” as he wobbled to the movement. Tony had put his hand to his shoulder.

“It’s alright, I won’t let you fall,” Tony said softly.

Slowly, Peter crawled off Tony’s hand, using all four limbs to keep himself stable as he climbed to his shoulder. He took a seat, and now it was a lot more real. He. Could. See.  _Everything._

The two stared out for a while. A thousand thoughts were racing through Tony’s head:  _Am I really doing this? What’s Pepper going to think? Should I tell Bruce? Is he really going to want to stay?_

Peter broke the silence. “You know,” his voice was so small and squeaky, “I don’t know anyone who’s ever talked to a human before.”

Human. Tony didn’t really think about the distinction.

He raised an eyebrow, amused. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’ve always been told stories of human carelessness. Don’t get too close to one, they’ll hurt you without even trying. They’ll show you off to their friends. You can’t expose us, it’ll be dangerous.”

Peter had almost talked himself into being anxious again.

“You… you won’t tell anyone about me, will you, Mr. Stark?”

Tony paused. He didn’t want to lie. But his silence had gone on for too long; Peter was already panicking.

“Oh God, what did I do? Thousands of years of not revealing ourselves and now  _I’m_  going to be the one to ruin it all—”

“Hey, kid, relax,” Tony interrupted. “I—I’m not going to tell anyone, okay?”

He could lie just this once.

Peter was skeptical. “Are you sure? You’re not going to want to tell the Avengers or something?”

Tony was surprised. “You know about that?”

“Well, I live inside your house.”

Tony snorted. “Yeah, I suppose you do.”

Silence.

“You know… you don’t have to go back.”

Peter almost fell off his shoulder. “Wh-what?”

“I mean, think about it. What good would it do you to stick around with those losers who don’t even appreciate you? All that borrowing… sounds like it sucks. Plus I haven’t even gotten around to furnishing the insides of my walls yet.”

Peter chuckled. “Yeah, it’s pretty bare in there.”

“Well… if you stayed around here with me… you wouldn’t have to hunt around for anything anymore.”

Peter almost couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Tony Stark… Iron Man himself… was asking meek, tiny Peter to  _live with him_. He should be trembling right now. Shaking. Terrified by the thought of even interacting with a human.

But he felt none of that.

The kid was so still on his shoulder it didn’t even feel like he was there anymore.  _Why was he taking so long to respond?_

“Kid—?”

Suddenly, Tony felt something on his neck. He stiffened up as his hand flinched, but it only took him a moment to realize that it was Peter.

The only thing he could think of was to give Tony a hug. “T…thank you, M-Mr. Stark.”

Slowly, Tony took his index finger and found Peter’s body. In the most gentle and totally-not-weird way possible, he gave the kid a makeshift hug.

Once Peter let go, he spoke.

“M-Mr. Stark?”

“What’s up?”

“Can you show me the rest of your house?”

Tony laughed to himself. Was he really going to do this?

He turned his head to Peter, who was grinning ear-to-ear, awaiting an answer.

Tony looked out at his lab; scrappy, unorganized. Tens of unfinished or failed projects. Loose Iron Man parts. One of his cars might not be parked straight.

But that’s not what Peter saw.

“Sure, kid. Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos and comments are really appreciated!! ❤️❤️


	2. Good for something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter's feeling self-conscious, and Tony wants to help.

“Two… and… three-quarters inches,” Tony said, placing his dusty wooden ruler down.

“What?! No, take that again,” Peter called out, looking at the ruler in disgust. “There’s no way.”

Tony shrugged. “Sorry, kid, looks like you’ll just have to wait for another growth spurt.” A sly smile grew across his face. “Maybe you’ll hit 2.9 inches one day. I’m optimistic.”

Peter couldn’t believe it. No, he _refused_ to believe it. Stark had all of this ridiculous equipment and he chose to measure him with a musty old _ruler?_

“Do it again, Mr. Stark!” Peter said tenaciously as he raced to the ruler. He bent down, slipping his hands underneath the splintery wood and heaving it off the tabletop. It smelled horrible.

Tony could only watch in amusement as the little guy tried to carry around something four times his size. Well, a little over four times.

_Man, this is a lot heavier than I thought it would be. I’m really losing my touch._

Peter wasn’t one to give up, though. He eventually got the ruler in the air, but he immediately staggered to the left, struggling to keep it balanced in his arms as walked toward the edge of the desk.

“Mr… Stark… you… have… to…”

_Slam._

“Do it again.”

Tony let out a chuckle.

“I’ll give it to you, kid. You’re one persistent sucker.”

Peter beamed.

“But…” Tony took his index finger and his thumb and dramatically plucked the ruler off the table, “the numbers don’t lie.”

Peter crossed his arms as he watched Tony twirl the ruler in his hand with ease.

“Well, that’s just not fair,” he muttered.

Tony turned to the table behind him, putting the ruler off to the side. He began tinkering with some prototype parts—a miniature grappling hook, the skeleton of a tiny Iron Man suit.

“Face it, buddy,” Tony said with a small grin, “you’ll just never be as tall as me.” He brought the small parts over to the table where the Borrower was standing and set them down gently. Tony found that Peter quite enjoyed fiddling with the spare parts around the lab.

Something was up, though. Peter just… stared at the parts. Normally he’d be all over them.

“Oh boy,” Tony said under his breath. He took a few steps back and grabbed a chair, sitting himself down and wheeling back over to his tiny friend.

“What’s the matter now, kid?”

Tony had become used to it at this point. It had been a few weeks since he first caught Peter, and all the kid did was complain. He supposed it was only fair, since he probably hasn’t been allowed to whine for all of his teenage years, but it got especially bad when Tony proposed showing Peter to Pepper.

“You want to WHAT?”

Tony pinched the brim of his nose. “Look, kid, I—”

“You _promised_!”

“Yes, I realize that, but—”

“Y-you can’t just break a promise like that! I-I’m not ready for that! I—”

“Hey!” Tony snapped his fingers. He found that usually snapped Peter out of his panic attacks.

He leaned down. “Pepper is the sweetest, gentlest… nicest person you’ll ever have the pleasure of meeting. She is _very_ important to me and when she inevitably finds out about you, she’s going to be absolutely _pissed_ I didn’t tell her sooner.”

Peter focused on his breathing techniques that Tony had told him about. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Hold the breath for as long as you can.

“It’s okay, buddy. She’s not going to hurt you. She might be weirded out at first, but don’t take it personally!”

“But… what if she—”

“She _won’t_. Whatever you were about to say… she won’t. If you’re going to be an honorary Stark like we talked about (Tony absolutely adored the way his face lit up when he said that), she has to know. She’s our family, too.”

Peter took one last breath with his eyes closed before speaking.

“O-okay. Let’s go.”

Tony scooped Peter up, covering the hand holding Peter as he bounded up the stairs. Peter had gotten good at blocking out the motion sickness he got from being carried around—the motion sickness that Tony always forgets about when he grabbed him.

“Pep? I got something I gotta show you! Yah, you heard that right! I’m sharing something with you voluntarily! You can’t pass up on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

Peter kicked at Stark’s fingers. He was getting anxious.

Tony lifted his hand off once he felt the little pat. “Sorry, Mr. Stark, I-I’m suffocating in there,” Peter said worriedly. In through the nose.

Tony’s ears perked up when he heard the click-clack of Pepper’s heels as she trotted down the stairs.

“Tony? Honey, what is it?”

Tony hurriedly put his hand back over Peter. Pepper looked down at his cupped hands, eyebrow raised.

“What is…?”

“Now, look, remember when I used to ramble on about those tiny people? Borrowers?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Yes, Tony, I remember.”

“Okay, well—just, just promise not to freak out. The kid is really jumpy.”

Peter clenched his hands. He had no control of this situation, but if he had his way, he would just be playing with scrap metal back down in the lab. He just stared up, butterflies bursting through his stomach, waiting for it. Out through the mouth.

It took Pepper a second, but her eyes grew wide and she gasped as Tony lifted his hand up. Sitting there, right in the middle of his palm, was a tiny person.

She blinked, hardly able to believe what was in front of her. She locked gazes with the kid, whose eyes were probably wider than hers. She was astonished that she could see his little chest expanding, retracting, expanding, retracting. Hold the breath as long as you can.

“What the _hell_ did you do, Tony?!”

Tony stared. “What?”

“You—” she put her hand to her forehead, “you _kidnapped_ this poor guy?”

“Well, not technically,” Tony said quietly, feeling Peter shaking in his palm. “He walked into my trap.”

“UGH!” Pepper threw her arms out. “That’s even _worse_! Oh my _god_ , Tony. I can’t believe this!”

“Are you serious? I _saved_ this little bugger. He adores me! Don’t you, kid?”

Peter froze. Now they were _both_ staring at him.

“Uhm, I—”

“Oh, don’t do that to him,” Pepper snapped. “You can’t just _capture_ a living being and—”

“Um, Ms. Potts?”

Pepper stopped. The kid was standing up now. Did he just call her…

“Um. Hi.” A small wave. “I-I’m Peter.”

Pepper tilted her head. “Nice to… meet you, Peter.”

“Mr. Stark didn’t mean any harm when he trapped me. He was just curious! I-it was probably my fault, too. I—I really should have noticed where I was going. I was looking for spare parts and—”

Tony cleared his throat. Deep breath.

“B-but, anyway, he’s right. I-I’m glad he found me when he did. S-so p-please… please d-don’t get mad at him.”

Pepper was almost in shock. How was she actually supposed to talk to this kid? Her only instinct was to use baby talk. But he was clearly well past that phase of his life.

Awkwardly, she bent down to meet Peter at his level. Peter backed up a little bit, stumbling on the crease of Tony’s hand.

“Don’t you have a family? Someone who’s going to miss you while you’re here with us?”

Peter pursed his lips, eyes darting to the ground.

“No, ma’am, I—Ms. Potts—I—um—”

Pepper cut him off. “It’s okay. I understand.”

She stood up, a little shaken. “If he ever bothers you too much,” she said, pointing to Tony, “tell him to bring you to me so you can catch a break.”

All Peter could do was laugh.

He thought about that first encounter a lot. It was terrifying. Perhaps more terrifying than being caught for the first time.

“Is everything okay?”

Tony was staring at him with a genuine concern in his eyes.

Peter took a seat. “N-no, n-not really.”

Tony waited for Peter to continue.

“I-it’s stupid.”

“Kid, I’ve heard so many stupid things in my life. So far, none of them have come from you.”

Peter looked up, wondering if that was supposed to encourage him.

“So keep up the streak.”

_In through the nose._

“It’s, uh… it’s just, I-I guess I just never really thought about how… overwhelming everything would be. A-at least in your walls, I’m surrounded by things my size. But being out here… I-I’m just constantly reminded at how… small… I really am. How I’ll never be able to do the things you can.”

_Out through the mouth._

Tony sighed. He thought he might have to deal with this eventually, but the kid just seemed so eager and energetic all the time that he didn’t even know he felt that way.

“Look, Peter… I can’t even begin to imagine what this is like for you. If I were you, I’d probably be really freaked out, too. But you know I don’t think of you any lesser just because you’re a few feet shorter than me, right? I mean, there are people taller than me who are way stupider than you.”

Peter just stared. That didn’t come out right.

“What if Pepper does? What if she thinks it’s stupid you’re wasting all your time with… me?”

“…kid, Pepper just wants you to be _okay_. She asks me about you because she _cares_ about you, not because she doesn’t think you can’t handle yourself.”

Peter huffed. “You’re just saying that.”

“Kid, you seriously think I would fake sympathy just to make you _feel better_?” Tony scoffed. “C’mon. You know me better than that.”

Peter sat, legs crossed and twiddling his thumbs.

That gave Tony an idea.

He swiveled around, picking up some more scraps from his other table.

“Why don’t you build something? Here.” He pushed a few small wires and metal parts toward him.

Peter knew what Tony was doing, but he couldn’t help but stare at the parts, observing the intricate edges. Where had he seen that particular cut before?

His mind darted to the mini grappling hook Tony had put in front of him before. Slowly, he picked up the scrap metal and scooted over to the hook, which wasn’t really a hook at all—it was more like a pad. But it was smooth, so he had no idea how that was supposed to help him in any way.

Wires. He needed some wires. Maybe it worked with… what did Tony call it... electromagnetism? That was something Tony had been talking to him about the last few weeks. Peter knew how to build with parts, but not with wires.

Tony observed Peter cutting, shaping, plugging away at the grappling hook, trying his hardest to keep his face straight in case the kid looked back up at him.

Peter worked on the hook for what had to be 30 minutes, using his nice shirt that Tony had made for him to wipe the sweat off his face and the grease off his hands. By the time he had finished, the shirt was practically unwearable.

“I-I had your Iron Man suit in mind,” Peter said, holding his creation out to Tony. Carefully, Tony took his two fingers and pinched the piece from Peter, dropping it into his palm and pulling out his magnifying glass. It was… a little metal glove.

Tony looked at it, tilting it around as he inspected its integrity. _Man, the kid has some small-ass hands._

Tony looked back down at Peter, who was biting his lip.

“Well, does it work?”

He tossed it back down to Peter. The Borrower turned the glove around in his hands, wondering if he did everything right. He slipped the glove on, mechanics whirring and whining as he splayed his hand out. He turned to Tony. “W-what should I point it at?”

Tony grabbed the ruler from behind him and placed it vertically on Peter’s table. “Aim for this.”

Peter took a breath, aiming the glove at his old foe. The power whirred to life, not unlike an Iron Man suit when Tony was ready to fire a blast. But his entire arm was shaking. When he was finally ready to fire, he suddenly went flying.

“Ohhhhh myyyyy goooooood!” he cried as he sped toward the ruler. He shut his eyes, bracing for impact.

_Plop._

Slowly, Peter opened his eyes. He was high up in the air, legs dangling beneath him and one arm flailing at his side. But where was…?

“Check it out, kid. Looks like you grew a bit.”

He looked up. There was his other hand, glove stuck right at the nine-inch mark.

“Oh my god. O-oh my god!” Peter laughed, trying to move his glove hand around. He could hear the static at work, keeping him stuck to the side. “How do I shut this of—AHHH!”

He fell to the table in a heap. Boy, he was not ready for that.

Tony set the ruler down. “See, kid? You _are_ good for something. You just built an electromagnetic glove all by yourself.”

Peter sat up, cheeks red. “W-well, you did like, half the wiring.”

“Yeah, well, that’s beside the point. What I’m trying to show you is that you are _more_ than capable, Peter. You don’t need to be big to do big things, kid.”

Peter smiled. “Do you just have a big book of inspirational one-liners you study every night before bed?”

“Of course not. I was just born with the intrinsic knowledge and charm of playboys who came before me,” Tony said, not even missing a beat.

His smile grew wider. “Boy, I wish I was as funny as you, Mr. Stark.”

Tony put his hand on the table next to Peter and the Borrower delightedly scuttled on. He lifted the kid up and got out of his chair, stretching his free arm.

“Sorry, kid. I think that’s one thing I’ll just have to stay better than you at.”

Peter looked up.

“I think I’m okay with that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for all the positive responses on chapter 1 <3 i'm probably gonna put the rest of it up on thursday! get hype


	3. Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony's been acting a bit weird lately, and Clint wants to know what's up.

Tony Stark had a real tough time keeping secrets. Not even something as larger-than-life as Iron Man was safe under his jurisdiction. If he knew something, it wouldn’t be long before everyone else knew, too.

Peter knew this about Stark. And Peter was terrified.

It had been a few months, and he was beginning to grow accustomed to his daily life in a giant house. Tony would bring him into the kitchen every morning, where he’d scamper around the counter and explore as breakfast was cooked up. While he no longer needed to borrow anymore, he missed sneaking around and collecting things. Tony would hide little crumbs and other small things around the counter so Peter could find them and play around with them later. After eating, Tony would then either go down to his lab, where Peter sat to the side, tinkered around and having conversations with Jarvis, or he would go upstairs in Avengers Tower to mingle with his fellow superheroes, leaving Peter in Pepper’s care.

“What do you think he does up there?” Peter wondered out loud one day, scribbling on a post-it with a broken pencil tip.

Pepper didn’t even move her eyes. “I don’t know, Peter.”

“Probably boring superhero stuff,” he sighed. “U-unless it’s super _fun_ superhero stuff. Do you think Captain America is up there right now? O-or maybe Thor? Or—”

_“Peter.”_

“Right, right. Sorry.”

His days usually went like that. And he was totally fine with it—he was living with _Tony Stark_! But Tony had become so used to having Peter around that he found it hard to pretend he didn’t exist. Especially around Earth’s mightiest heroes.

“You’re late _again_ , Stark.”

Clint’s deadpan voice was the last thing Tony wanted to hear.

“Save it, bird brain. I had a busy morning.”

“Another busy morning? What’s that, the 10th one in a row?” Natasha groaned. “You have an obligation to us, Stark.”

“Yeah, and I also have obligation to Pe—” he stopped himself and sighed. “To my _other_ work. Which, by the way,” he continued, strolling past the agents and taking a seat at the counter, pulling his phone from his pocket, “helps us in the long run up here too.”

Natasha rolled her eyes and strutted away, pinning Tony’s recent behavior on classic Stark arrogance. But Clint wasn’t so convinced.

“You seem _very_ into your “other work,”” he said, wrapping the last two words in air quotes.

Tony didn’t look up from his phone. “Yeah? What’s it to you?”

Clint moved closer. “You have conveniently declined to share with us what this “other work” is.”

Tony could have crushed his phone in his hand if he wanted to. He felt his face get hot. “Oh, so now you want me to explain to you every single little project I’m working on? As if the complexity of my work wouldn’t fly over your head faster than one of your arrows? Give me a break, Barton.”

Clint’s hand instinctually reached for his quiver resting on his back, but he stopped himself. Tony had just, after all, confirmed his suspicions.

Tony joined the rest of the group in the meeting room, mind racing. He could tell Clint was onto him, but there was no way he knew exactly what was up. Right?

He could barely concentrate during the meeting. Luckily, he didn’t need to do much but nod and say “Yep, mhm” every few minutes. He kept fidgeting in his seat like a schoolkid waiting for the bell to ring. As soon as the words “You’re dismissed” slipped from Nick Fury’s lips, Tony spun around and dashed out of the room before anyone else could talk to him.

Clint let out a deep sigh. Nobody seemed to notice Tony was acting strange but him.

Well, they didn’t call him Hawkeye for nothing.

“Hey, Banner,” Clint whisper-shouted, grabbing him by the arm before he could get out the door.

“What? What’s up?” Bruce said, shaking Clint’s arm away. _This must be serious,_ Bruce thought. _Clint never talks to me._

“I need something from you.”

“Okay…”

“Have you noticed how weird Stark has been acting lately?”

Bruce didn’t really think about it, but now that Clint had pointed it out, he could see it—he was a little more on edge than usual. He nodded.

“Can you go down to his lab and see what he’s working on? Look for anything… unusual?” Clint wasn’t even sure what he was getting at, but he hoped Bruce would understand. “I dunno, it just feels like he’s hiding something.”

Bruce scoffed. “Is that so different than normal?” He knew it was the schtick to take jabs at Tony, but Tony was one of the few people who he considered a true friend, and it bothered him.

Clint pressed both his hands on Bruce’s shoulders. “Banner. I’m a professional spy. It’s my job to notice the little inconsistencies.”

He knew Banner and Tony were close. He sighed and put his hands back to his side.

“Just… please check for me.”

Bruce sighed. He was going down to the lab anyway, so he might as well oblige.

“Alright, Clint. But don’t get your hopes up.”

 

Tony had stopped by Pepper to pick up Peter. He loved carrying the kid around, but he knew the kid didn’t enjoy it as much as he did, especially when he had to cover him with his hand. He’s been told it’s nauseating.

When he made it back to the lab, eyeing everyone on his way down, he set Peter down and let out a long sigh, rubbing his eyes vainly.

“I-Is everything alright, Mr. Stark?”

Tony groaned. “No.”

Peter’s stomach churned. That was the first time he had said no.

“Is it… is it my fault?”

He had taken notice to how stressed Tony has been lately, asking him every day how things were. At first, Tony just complained about his fellow Avengers, but after about a week he began to give more vague answers until he just flat-out stopped answering. That didn’t stop Peter from trying, though.

Tony pinched his brows in. Technically, it _was_ his fault, but it also wasn’t. He knew Peter wasn’t going to accept that as an answer.

“I think Clint’s onto us.”

Peter was confused. “O-onto us? What are you—”

Suddenly, Tony leaned in, enveloping Peter’s view entirely. He had never gotten this close to him before.

“Listen, kid,” he hissed. He knew his voice was too loud, but he couldn’t control it. “We’re going to have to start being a lot more careful—”

“Tony? Who’re you talking to?”

Tony shot up. How had Jarvis just let Bruce into the room without alerting him?

“H-hey! You can’t just barge in here like that, _Banner_.”

Banner. As in Bruce Banner. As in the giant, green rage monster. Peter instantly scrambled behind a piece of tech, slipping his body in between the parts so he could look out at the giants and still be completely hidden.

“S-Sorry Tones, I thought you were expecting me,” Bruce said carefully, slowly making his way over to the other scientist. He noticed how Tony’s eyes kept flickering to the tabletop.

“Can’t a man spend some time with his tools in private?” Tony shot back, his voice shaking ever-so-slightly.

Slightly enough for Bruce to notice.

“What are you working on?” Banner had finally made his way to the table. Peter gazed up, his eyes unable to tear away. _He could kill me in an instant._

“Uh, you know, just the usual,” Tony said, eyes darting around the table for any trace of Peter. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the borrower laying stomach-down underneath a piece of scrap metal. When his eyes met Peter’s, he could almost feel the nerves exuding from the tiny being. He gave him a sympathetic look before turning back to Bruce.

Bruce was scanning the table nonchalantly, looking for anything out of the ordinary. At first, he didn’t notice. Tony had pulled him over so they could start working on some equations, and he was quickly immersed in his work. He went back to the table a few times to analyze some tech, deep brown eyes catching a new detail every time.

It was when Tony took a bathroom break that he saw it.

It was impossibly small. He glossed over it because it didn’t even look like anything significant. But upon staring at it harder, he began to notice the intricacies of the little thing. He pinched it and plopped it down in the center of his palm, bringing it so close he almost bumped his hand to his face. He scrunched his eyes, searching wildly for a magnifying glass. When he grabbed one, he gasped.

It was a glove.

Peter choked on his breath when he saw Bruce’s hand go for his glove. _How could I be so stupid?!_ He yelled to himself in his head. A small whimper escaped his throat as he picked it up, examining everything. He didn’t think a single human knew about borrowers until being caught by Tony, but now… there could be a whole plethora of humans who were skeptical, but didn’t have any proof.

And Peter just gave him proof.

 _I gotta get that glove,_ he thought as he started to wiggle his way out. Adrenaline pulsed through his body, fears of being discovered all over again flooding his thoughts. As the metal clanked around him, he gave panicked looks up to Banner, but he was too involved in his glove to notice. Once he crawled free of his hiding spot, he darted behind another scrap, legs nearly collapsing underneath him. He paused to catch his breath, but the air was escaping his lungs faster than he could breathe it in. Dark spots flickered in his vision as he guided his gaze around the tabletop, looking for any semblance of a plan to get his glove back.

“Tony,” Peter breathed to himself, “Where are you?”

Bruce’s mouth was slightly agape, his brows furrowed as he processed what he was holding. Tony and he had talked about… no, it couldn’t be. It violated the square-cube law. It couldn’t be. He was probably just trying out some different things.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Bruce whipped his head around, coming face-to-face with Tony.

Bruce gulped, but he had to get answers. “Tony, what is this?” he asked, holding out the glove.

Peter held his breath, peering around the piece of metal. Bruce’s back was to him and he could see every expression on Tony’s face.

Tony’s eyes went wide. _That kid is going to be in so much trouble._

“I-It’s nanotech I’m working on,” Tony said as smoothly as possible. “What better way to test it out than making the tiniest version of my suit possible?”

His eyes suddenly darted to Peter’s, giving him a _what the hell are you doing out in the open?_ death glare. Peter was shaking too much to emote back.

“What does it do?” Bruce asked, genuinely curious.

“Well, it’s elect—” Tony caught himself. “I-It goes to this,” he said, reaching over to the table to pull up the tiny Iron Man suit skeleton. Peter ducked.

Bruce raised his eyebrow. “What do you need this for?”

Peter had that terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach—the one he got when he knew things were going wrong.

“I told you,” Tony grumbled, “It’s nanotech.”

“A three-inch-tall suit is _nanotech_?”

“It’s a PROTOTYPE!” Tony yelled, causing Peter to flinch. He hadn’t seen him get that angry before.

“You need to leave.”

“What? Tony—”

“GET. OUT. Jarvis, please make sure the door hits him on the way out.”

“That’s not very kid, sir,” the AI responded.

“Tony, this is ridiculous. Just tell me what’s going on!” Bruce said, thoroughly convinced Clint’s suspicions were accurate.

Tony sighed. His hands were tied. Bruce was too smart to be fooled by his cover-up, and it didn’t help that he was one of the only people he used to talk about Borrowers with.

But how would the kid feel? He had already broken their promise once showing him to Pepper, and although Tony considered that an exception, Peter didn’t see it that way. At least, not at first.

He glanced over to Peter, still peeking out. He stared at him for a few seconds, causing Bruce to follow Tony’s gaze. Luckily, he couldn’t see Peter from his angle.

Not yet, anyway.

Tony’s face softened, his eyebrows slightly flicking up and his lips curled into a frown. It took Peter a few seconds, but once he realized what was about to happen, he ran.

He ran like hell. He jumped over tools and ducked under wires, his mind no longer worried about being noticed.

Bruce’s face scrunched into confusion as he watched Tony reach down to the table.

“I’m sorry, kid,” Tony whispered.


	4. Mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tony done fuccs up

Peter was fast and agile, but there was so much junk on the table that all Tony needed to do was place his hand in front of Peter’s path and the other behind it, walling him in.

“No, NO!” Peter shrieked, his head on a swivel as he desperately tried to find a way out. He began running toward a slight opening near where Stark’s two hands almost touched, but he realized too late that’s exactly where he wanted him to be. His massive fingers suddenly curled up, taking Peter with them. He desperately kicked and punched, trying to squirm free of Tony’s grasp. His fingertip pressed into Peter’s back, almost crushing all the air out of him. Peter let out a small cry with what remaining breath he had, his white-knuckled hands punching Tony’s fingertip even harder now.

Suddenly he was released, tumbling down to the center of Tony’s palm. He landed on his hands and knees, gasping for air. Clumps of his brown hair were drenched in sweat.

Bruce was stunned. No, _astonished._ He could barely believe he was staring at a real-life Borrower. He wanted to feel sympathy, but his mind instantly went to all the tests he could perform.

“Tony…” Bruce stammered, staring at the Borrower. The poor guy looked to be no more than 15 years old. “Tony, how long—”

“A few months,” he replied lowly, keeping his eyes on Peter the entire time. God, the kid was going to _hate_ him.

“A-and how—”

Tony shot him a look and Bruce pressed his lips together, not daring to press on with his question.

Bruce couldn’t look away. He could see him shaking in Tony’s palm. He pulled his knees to his head and buried it between his legs, skin pale and moist with sweat.

_Great, I’m horrifying as the Hulk AND regular Bruce Banner now._

“Does… does he have a name?” he asked, leaning in slightly.

“It’s Peter.”

Peter cringed and shut his eyes when Tony said his name, salty tears stinging as he squeezed them tighter. How could he betray him like that? He didn’t even _try_ to protect him! First Pepper, and now an _Avenger_ —and an unstable one at that. What if he Hulked out right now? He wouldn’t last five seconds. Why didn’t Tony ever listen to him?

“Hey,” Tony said, shaking his hand a bit to snap Peter out of it. He didn’t want Bruce to know that snapping his fingers was his way of calming Peter down.

Out of pure anger, Peter looked up at Tony. He didn’t want anything to do with him right now, or _ever again._ Tony, completely taken over with guilt, could see the fire burning in the Borrower’s eyes.

“Why don’t you introduce yourself,” he ushered, trying to push the image of the hatred that engulfed Peter’s eyes out of his head for now.

Peter turned his attention to Banner, whose look of pure awe was almost amusing. _Yeah, like you have anything to be shell-shocked about right now._

His lower lip quivered as Banner continued to stare, unsure of what to say.

“Uh… hey buddy. M-My name’s Bruce Banner,” the doctor offered. The Borrower said nothing.

“I—I work with Tony around the lab and—” he cut himself off. “Well, I guess you probably know that.”

Peter stared out toward the ground, now ignoring Bruce entirely. _How could he do this to me?_

“C’mon, kid, don’t be rude,” Tony mumbled. “Say hi.”

Bruce felt awful. He could practically feel the tension that was buzzing in the short amount of space between them.

“Tony, it’s okay, really,” Bruce said shyly. “He-he looks like he needs space.”

Peter swallowed as another tear trickled down his cheek. He wanted to say something, but his lips refused to part. Suddenly, Tony’s phone went off. It was Pepper.

“I, uh, I gotta—here, why don’t you—” he started to hand Peter off to Bruce before realizing how stupid that was. “Here, kid, just…” he tilted his hand and dropped Peter off on the table, “…stay here. And play nice.”

With that, Stark stepped out of the lab, calmly bantering with Pepper.

Peter was frozen. _He’s probably going to start running tests on me. Oh man, he better not use that goddamn ruler to measure me. What if the Hulk comes out just to scare me? What if Dr. Banner starts dissecting me before Tony came back?_

Bruce’s heart sank once he saw the anxiety painted on Peter’s face. “Hey, listen, I-I know this is probably very weird. I—I’m just as weirded out as you are,” he said with a chuckle that quickly faded when he realized how terrified Peter really was. He cleared his throat and suddenly realized that the only times Peter must have seen him were either in the lab or as the Hulk. No wonder he was so scared.

“But, uhm, I-I’m not going to hurt you. You know that, right?”

No response.

Bruce sighed, taking in just how small the being in front of him was. The miscellaneous pieces of tech and scrap metal on the table must look like _mountains_ to him. His mind went back to the glove, which he remembered he was still holding. He inspected it again, truly wondering how anything could fit their hand into that. He looked down to Peter, who was curled up impossibly tight.

“H-hey, do you want this back?”

He carefully moved his hand down next to Peter. He slowly looked up and scooted back when he saw the hand approaching him, but stared when he saw the glove sitting on his skin. He looked up at Bruce, who was giving him an encouraging smile, and slowly moved over to the giant’s hand. Bruce shuffled his hand a bit, bouncing the glove to the edge of his hand. Peter picked it up, slipping it on and letting out a deep sigh when the mechanics began to whir.

Bruce looked to the doorway of the lab. Still no Tony.

“Did… did you make that yourself?” he asked.

Peter gave a small nod, which Bruce was not expecting.

“Are you serious?” he blurted out. Peter shot him a hurt look, but Banner quickly backtracked.

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that. That’s really impressive. What does it do?”

Peter took a second, wondering if he should actually humor him. What if this was just a trap? What if Bruce snatched him up while he was in the air and did horrible things?

Or, what if he really wanted to see what he made? _This could be your chance, Peter_ , he thought. _To prove yourself._

He stuck his hand up and pointed it at the nearest piece of scrap metal. In a flash, he heard the familiar _plop_ sound as he attached himself to the object. He had been practicing with Tony, who showed him ways to essentially scale things like a spider. He crawled up, using his old paper clip and string hook to swing from object to object until he reached his destination—the peak of a makeshift metal mountain, something Tony had set up for him to practice his skills. He stumbled upon landing, but gathered his footing and nervously looked up at Banner. His mouth was slightly agape, blinking a few times before he said anything.

“…Wow,” he breathed. “That’s… incredible.”

Peter tried his hardest not to smile.

“So, it’s electromagnetic?”

Peter nodded. “Basically, I can latch on to anything and climb it.”

Bruce was a little surprised to hear him speak—not just because his voice was high-pitched and cracked quite a bit, but because he didn’t think it was physically possible to hear something so small from where he was.

“How did… how did you learn to make something like this?”

Peter shrugged, pretending like that didn’t just insult his intelligence. “B-Borrowers are really good at building things. M-Mr. Stark just helped me out with the wiring a bit.”

Bruce almost laughed at Peter calling Tony “Mr. Stark,” but hims mind quickly bounced back to what he had just seen. He figured that Borrowers’ stealth and agility were off the charts, but he never considered the possibility of them being expert craftsmen. His mind began to wonder just how good this kid was.

Bruce looked back down to Peter, who surprisingly wasn’t sulking or looking away. His tiny arm was outstretched, holding the glove in his miniscule fingers.

“Y-You can take a closer look at it,” he said shakily, “I-If you want to.”

Instead of taking the glove back, though, Bruce extended his hand out, silently offering for Peter to climb on. Peter’s brain was firing the command to oblige, but his limbs stayed put. Instead, he just dropped the glove back in his hand and slid down the metal mountain back to the table.

 _Oh god, I’m patronizing this kid. He’s like a mini-genius and I’m patronizing him,_ Bruce huffed to himself, inspecting the glove once again.

He took another long look at it, sincerely surprised that the kid made it himself, not Tony.

“Oh, SHIT!”

Peter whipped his head up.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

Peter’s stomach churned. What was going on?

“Oh man, there’s no way I can tell this to Clint.”

Wait. Clint. As in… Hawkeye?

“He won’t believe me—”

His thoughts were cut off by Tony re-entering the room, muttering something about sleazy corporations under his breath. Peter turned away.

“Tony.”

_Oh, this can’t be good._

“Tony, I-I hate to break this to you, but Clint is—”

“Yeah, yeah, he’s being a pain in my ass, what else is new?”

“No, Tony, you don’t understand. He asked me to come down here and find out what you were hiding.”

Silence _._

“A-and now that I know, I-I can’t just _lie_ to him! He’d see right through me! B-but I can’t tell him… I can’t show him…”

Bruce’s heart was racing as he simultaneously played out scenarios in which he turned Peter over to Clint or lied straight to his face. Neither of them sat well with him, and he began to sweat.

“Woah, woah, take it easy,” Tony said, knowing exactly what was about to happen to his friend next. “We don’t want to startle the kid.”

“I’m sitting right here, you know,” Peter mumbled under his breath.

Bruce did some of his breathing exercises before pulling a stool over. He banged his elbow on the table and rested his forehead in the palm of his hand, completely ignoring Peter and doing exactly what Tony told him not to do.

“Oh, man, this is bad,” Bruce mumbled, his voice muffled by his hands.

Tony stared at Peter, who locked eyes with him for a moment before quickly looking away.

“Why don’t you just show him the suit?”

Both Bruce and Tony were shocked to hear Peter offer that suggestion.

“Kid, I’m not going to just give him your stuff,” Tony shot back.

Peter ignored him and looked straight at Bruce, who was watching his every move intently.

“T-Think about it. If you just tell him that you’re working on a bunch of mini suits—”

“The absurdity of that alone would be enough to convince him,” Bruce finished. Peter nodded, happy that someone could finish that sentence for him.

“Tony, that’s not a bad idea.”

Tony thought about it. While he was sure Clint had never even heard of a Borrower, he didn’t want to give him any evidence that might make him think otherwise. But there was no way Clint would believe anything he had to say. And Banner was a terrible liar.

Tony sighed. “Alright, Brucie. But I swear, if he gets his clammy little hands anywhere near that suit, I’m going to use his arrows as toothpicks.”

 

It was a silent few hours. After Bruce left with the suit, promising Peter he’d be back tomorrow to talk with him more about it, the Borrower couldn’t bring himself to even look at Tony. He liked Bruce and admired his kindness and the way he didn’t treat him like he was helpless. But he _felt_ helpless. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Tony’s giant hands reaching out for him. His towering fingers nearly pinning the life out of him without him even noticing. His chest squeezed every time he thought about it; about how powerful Tony was compared to him, even when he was trying to be gentle. The thought of Tony doing whatever he wanted with Peter when he got nervous made him shudder; he didn’t want to think about it anymore. With no glove or suit to play with, Peter resorted to trying to make a device to replace his string and paper clip to distract himself.

Tony knew Peter was upset. The kid hadn’t even _looked_ at him since the incident, and he knew better than to try and immediately fix things. He was hoping the kid would come around, but after two hours of silence, he couldn’t take it.

“Kid, you gotta give me something.”

Peter kept tinkering.

“C’mon, Peter, you can’t keep quiet forever.”

Suddenly, Peter shot him a look, as if to say _Try me._

Tony let out an exasperated breath, plopping down onto a chair as he continued his work.

“Why did you grab me like that?”

Tony had no answer.

“How would _you_ feel if a giant person just reached down, a-and snatched you up like you were nothing? How would you feel if those giant fingers just pressed into you and pushed all the air out of you?” His voice was starting to crack. “If you had to sit there helplessly and wonder what was going to happen to you next? How would you feel?!”

Tony felt a pang in his stomach as he closed his eyes, rubbing his temples lightly.

“Shit, kid, did I…?”

Peter nodded angrily.

“Shit,” Tony mumbled into the palm of his hands. “Fuck!”

Peter looked at him almost sympathetically. At least Tony wasn’t taking this lightly.

“Kid, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Peter snorted. “Well, I’m glad you feel upset for nearly crushing me. But what about what you did in the first place? Showing me to _Bruce Banner_?”

Tony frowned. “Bruce is gentle and all that junk. Isn’t that what you want?”

“You don’t even understand!” Peter was shouting now. “Yeah, but his alter ego isn’t! A-and it doesn’t even _matter_ how nice he is! I don’t want to be shown around like I’m some sort of collectable. I’m my own person and I’m 15 years old and I-I think I deserve to have my feelings taken into consideration.”

Peter was breathing heavily, scared that Tony would get upset at him. He flinched when Tony started to move, but relaxed when he saw he was just folding his arms on the table so he could rest his head on top. Slowly, Peter took a seat near Tony, staring out at the wall with him.

“Kid,” his hot breath hit Peter like a tsunami, “I care about you. Probably more than you realize.”

“Then why would you—”

“Ah-ah! Let me finish. Every day I have to go upstairs and act like you don’t exist. I can’t tell anyone about the things we build or the things I learn from talking to you. It kills me that I have to pretend you aren’t a part of my life.”

Peter was stunned.

“I snapped because you’re important to me. And Bruce is one of the only people who likes me enough to stick around and I couldn’t just lie to his face.”

He gave Peter a chance to respond, but he wanted to keep listening.

“I… I don’t understand what you’re going through. And I’m not going to forgive myself for hurting you like I did. But you gotta give it a chance, Peter. Give _me_ a chance to make you a real part of my life instead of this… hiding around nonsense.”

Tony’s limbs were jelly from that much emotional confessing. He was looking straight at Peter, whose back was turned to him. He couldn’t believe getting the cold shoulder from a three-inch-tall teenager was eating him up as much as it was. Is this what it was like having kids?

He waited a few minutes for a response before deciding that was enough vulnerability for the day.

“Well, kid, if you need me, I’ll—”

He felt a tug at his sleeve.

“Wait.”

He sat up straight now, eyebrows raised.

“I really don’t wanna meet more people. Not yet. But… but I guess I’d like to see what the rest of this tower looks like. Maybe even what the Avengers talk about when they hang out.”

Tony suppressed a smile. That was a good start.


	5. A costly error

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony brings Peter to an important Avengers meeting.

Peter tossed strings of sweaty hair from his face, letting out an exasperated sigh and putting his free hand on his hip. Chemistry was easy, but maneuvering around giant equipment to make what he wanted? Not so much.

“No, I think you have to mix in methylene dichloride if you want the web-like stickiness.”

Peter groaned. “Well, if you could point me in the direction of the methylene dichloride, that would be great. Really, it’s hard to see from down here.”

He watched as Bruce leaned over the pile of beakers and flasks to grab a small bottle. Peter watched in awe.  _That would have taken me, like, 20 minutes to reach._

“There ya go, bud,” Bruce said, placing it down gently next to his tiny friend. Like he had been doing all afternoon, he poured a small bit into a glass bowl roughly the size of a bottle cap so Peter could use it.

In the few days since Tony had revealed Peter to him, Bruce had made a conscious effort to try and get to know Peter better, and science was the bridge. Tony had explained everything to him, including his emotional outburst after Bruce had left. Things went well with Clint, whose suspicions were mostly satisfied.

“Let me get this straight,” Clint said, rubbing his eyes. “He… he’s building tiny suits?”

Bruce swallowed. “Uh, yeah, that was pretty much it. Super weird, right?” he laughed nervously.

Clint glared. “Are you sure this is all you saw?”

Bruce quickly nodded. “I-I didn’t see much else. Out of the ordinary, that is. There’s a lot of—”

Clint held out his hand. “Thanks, Banner,” he said with a small smile, “I owe you one.”

 _Holy shit,_  Clint thought as Bruce walked away.  _That suit is the perfect size for a Borrower._

“Okay, okay, I’m going to try it. Ready?”

Bruce nodded, chuckling quietly at Peter’s enthusiasm. Peter narrowed his eyes, clutching his right wrist with his left hand. He turned his right hand palm-up, aiming it at the metal mountain.  _You got this, Peter. It’s no different than the string and hook. Just press your two fingers here and—_

“Holy SHIT!” Peter cried out as the web made a  _splat_ on a jagged piece of metal. The force of the web coming out of the shooter caused him to stumble backwards a bit before regaining his footing. He tugged at the web—stretchy, but durable. He took a deep breath before giving it one last pull, and he was airborne. It was more streamlined than the rope and paper clip and less jerky than the glove.

It was perfect.

“This! Is! AWESOME!” Peter yelled through the wind. As he approached the metal mountain, he took his left hand and pointed it at one of Tony’s robots. Once he felt the satisfying stick of the web, he quickly pulled his right arm up, breaking the connection and swinging his momentum to the left. His free hand grabbed a portion of the web as he swung toward the robot, his fingers tracing the sticky substance.

_I wonder how far this thing can go…_

Peter aimed his right hand at one of Tony’s Iron Man suits, about 10 feet away from where he was. He wasted no time shooting another web, watching anxiously as it sailed toward the suit. It stuck without a hitch.

“Oh yeah!” Peter said, swaying back to the right. He flew toward the suit and shot another web out. The web was intended to hit the side of a neighboring table, but it stopped about two feet short. Peter vigorously pressed the trigger until he realized he didn’t make enough web for it to go that far. He watched in horror as the web lost momentum and sunk down, leaving him hurling toward the suit with no stop.

Bruce flinched and let out a small “oooh” when Peter slammed into the suit, a tiny  _plink_ echoing through the room.

“Are you okay?!” he said, frantically getting up from his seat.

Peter nodded, cheeks bright red. “I-I’m fine, really.”

“Hey, what’s going on here?”

Peter whipped his head around, but he had no view of Tony behind the suit. Instead, he began to slowly rotate.

“We tested out Peter’s new web shooters, but he got, he got…”

Tony raised an eyebrow, walking around to the front of the suit to see what Bruce was talking about. He almost burst out laughing when he saw Peter dangling there by a literal thread.

Tony bent down to meet Peter. “Hey, little guy,” he cooed, giving a small wave. “You get stuck?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Ha, ha, very funny, Mr. Stark. Can you help me out?”

Tony stood up, tapping his finger to his chin. “Well, I could help, but that would mean I don’t get to laugh at this. Jarvis, can you snap a pic of this? I don’t want to forget.”

“Jarvis, DON’T!” Peter yelled out desperately.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Parker, but I’ve already taken the picture and sent it directly to Mr. Stark’s phone.”

“And oh, what a glorious picture it is,” Tony said, finally offering Peter a hand. He ripped the web off his suit and gently lowered Peter into his hand, whisking him back over to the table.

“Brucie, how could you let him aim his gross spider fluid at my  _suit_?” Tony teased. “I’m gonna make you polish it off.”

“Tony, this kid is brilliant. You should be encouraging him, not teasing him!”

“Eh, I do! Every now and then.”

“Excuse me, sir, but there’s a meeting upstairs in two minutes,” Jarvis interrupted. “Shall I tell Director Fury you’ll be late again?”

Tony groaned. “No, no, we’re coming.”

He began to gather his things before remembering the conversation him and Peter had a few days ago.

“You wanna tag along?”

Peter looked up, genuinely shocked. “A-Are you sure? I don’t want to—”

“Kid, as long as you’re okay with it, I’m okay with it. But this isn’t going to be like our tower tours. There can’t be a single peep out of you the entire time.”

Peter was torn. He so, so wanted to see the rest of the Avengers in person, maybe even meet these heroes. But he didn’t want to go through the horror of being gawked at, being picked up and handled, being treated as lesser. He wished there was a way it could all be normal.

But nothing about this was normal.

“Tony, is bringing him to our meeting really a good idea?” Bruce asked. “Everyone’s gonna be there.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the  _point_ , genius,” Tony said as he laid his hand down on the table. Peter scurried on as Tony lifted him up to his chest pocket.

“Listen, you only nudge me if there’s an emergency. Like, you can’t breathe or something. Your foot falling asleep is  _not_ an emergency.”

Peter nodded, stepping over the top of Tony’s pocket and lowering himself in. The pocket was about an inch taller than him, but hanging on to the edge and sticking his head out wasn’t a problem.

“Aw, man, this is too precious,” Bruce said. Tony looked like one of those people who wears the baby sling, except his baby was three inches tall and the sling was a shirt pocket. “Jarvis, get a picture of th—!”

“Already done, sir,” the AI responded, almost cheeky.

Peter bounced up and down to the rhythm of Tony’s footsteps as he climbed up the stairs. Bruce was watching him, trying to figure out how he could put up with so much movement.

“You sure you’re up for this?” Bruce asked timidly as they approached the elevator.

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Banner. I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I’ll stay out of sight, but at least I’ll get to be at an Avengers meeting! I’m gonna get to see Captain America! OH! And Thor! He’s really cool. A-and…”

Tony and Bruce looked at each other, goofy grins on each of their faces. Peter was adorable to begin with, but watching him geek out was a whole other level.

“Shh, kiddo, stay down,” Tony whispered as the elevator doors opened. “We’re here.”

Peter kept his hands on the brim of the pocket and ducked into the pocket until just his eyes and the top of his head were visible. Tony had moved his jacket over so it was hard for others to see Peter, but not too hard for Peter to see others. His jaw almost dropped as his eyes adjusted to the light. The meeting room wasn’t all that fancy, but it was  _huge_. A giant, oval table took up most of the space, with at least a dozen occupied chairs around it. The room was covered in grey and the concrete walls made for a strange echo, but there were multiple pictures and framed newspaper pages plastered with images of the Avengers saving the day. Behind him, there was a series of windows and clear walls that gave one a look to the rest of the facility, including the gigantic lab space for projects bigger than a suit. Tony took a glance down at Peter and smiled, admiring how such a dull room could make him so fascinated. If nothing else, it made him not utterly dread the hours ahead.

“You like it?” Tony whispered. Peter stuck his hand out and gave a mini thumbs-up, his grin going ear-to-ear.

“Well, well, Mr. Playboy is finally on time for once.”

“It’s wonderful to see you too, bird brain,” Tony said back with a small smile.

“You seem like you’re in a good mood.”

Tony shrugged. “Guess I woke up on the right side of the bed today.”

Clint noticed how Tony’s jacket was oddly tucked close to the middle of his chest. He peered past it, barely making out the outline of a shirt pocket. He was going to keep an eye on that.

“Oh, oh, that was Hawkeye!” Peter whispered, knowing full well nobody could hear him. “And that’s Black Widow! Oh, she could totally kill me just by looking at me. Oh, OH! It’s—!”

“Hello, Capsicle. Lovely day today, isn’t it!”

Steve raised an eyebrow at Tony’s oddly upbeat tempo. “Haven’t seen you around in a while. Bruce has been telling us you’re really busy down in the lab. What are you up to, Stark?”

Tony froze for a millisecond, but his paranoia quickly faded. “I’m just up to the old tricks, Captain. Building, inventing, being a genius. You know, the usual.”

Steve let out a small chuckle. Peter couldn’t believe how close he was to Captain America! He didn’t even look like he was from the 1940s. He slowly pulled himself up until his chin was level with the edge of the pocket, enjoying every second of the conversation him and Tony were having. Suddenly, a booming voice rang out.

“Avengers, take your seats.”

The voice of Nick Fury was unmistakable. As Steve walked away to take his seat, laughing at one last quip from Tony, his eyes shifted to the shirt pocket that had become exposed during the conversation. For the tiniest of moments, Peter’s eyes met Steve’s. The Borrower froze, not expecting that to happen. Steve’s eyes went wide for a moment before Peter’s instincts kicked in and he ducked out of sight. Steve blinked before heading back to his seat.

For the first 15 minutes, Peter couldn’t get enough. He was listening in on top-secret, government classified information! But the next hour and 45 minutes after that were excruciating. He had to resist the urge to alert Tony when his foot fell asleep for the fourth time. Getting comfortable in a pocket was not easy—Peter kept kicking at the fabric and adjusting his arms and legs, repeating the process every 10 minutes.

Though Tony was paying attention, he winced every time Peter shifted.  _Kid, I swear to god, if you move one more time I’m going to throw you in a jar and have Bruce babysit you for a week._

Throughout the meeting, Clint kept eyeing Tony. He was sitting to his right and though his jacket obstructed most of his pocket, he swore he could see something shuffling in there. No, he  _definitely_ saw something move in there. He glanced around the room; nobody else noticed. He looked back and almost choked on his water when he saw the tiniest of heads pop out from his pocket, presumably taking a breath before ducking back inside.

“Agent Barton, are you with us?”

Fury was looking at him, clearly annoyed. Tony was looking at him with wide eyes—he was almost… nervous.

“Y-yeah. I’m with ya.”

“Good. Now, as I was saying…”

Clint tried his hardest, but he couldn’t concentrate. Not only did Stark know about Borrowers, but he had one in his  _freaking chest pocket_. Man, this was going to be awkward.

Fury went on for another half hour before deciding the meeting was over. “I see some of you are particularly distracted today,” Fury said, eyeing both Clint and Tony. “Whatever’s on your mind, you gotta let it go. This is going to be an important mission.” He paused for a beat before dismissing everyone.

“You okay, kid?” Tony whispered in the smallest of voices. He glanced down for a second, seeing Peter awkwardly cramped in his pocket. He gave a weak thumbs up, his eyes pleading to  _please hurry up and get out of here_.

“Banner, my lab,” Tony called out. Bruce nodded and the two started taking off for the door before Clint stopped them.

“Hey, mind if I join?” he said, gluing himself to Tony’s side.

Tony actually stopped dead in his tracks and looked almost offended. “Are you kidding?”

Clint just stared.

“Oh my god. You’re not kidding. Okay, well, let me think— _no_ ,” Tony replied, pushing past him. But Clint grabbed his arm before he could go.

Bruce was observing from a few feet away, but he knew exactly what was going on.  _Oh, man._

“Tony,” Clint said. He was staring directly at his pocket. “I know.”


	6. On his own

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> clint's got some explaining to do...

Tony almost choked. “Uh, what are you talking about?”

“Tony, come on. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“Was there something in that water? You’re going crazy, Barton.”

“Hey, guys, you might want to keep it down a little…” Bruce interjected. Both Steve and Natasha were looking over at the three of them, with Thor hanging in the back.

Tony’s eyes flashed down to his pocket, where he could now feel Peter clutching onto the fabric of his shirt. He couldn’t repeat what he did with Bruce. Not again. Not ever.

“Listen, Legolas,” Tony spat, “You sent Bruce down to my lab to  _spy_ on me. Yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice that. You’ve been up my ass for weeks and for what? Because of this ridiculous notion that me not sharing every excruciating detail of my daily life is me  _hiding_ something? You agents make me sick.”

“Tony…” Bruce nudged.

“No! And you know what? Just because we all live in this tower together doesn’t mean I owe you guys anything. When we’re not fighting crime and all that crap, I don’t give a rat’s ass about what any of you do with your personal lives. So stay out of mine.”

Tony stormed out of the room, Bruce trailing close behind.

“Did you really have to make such a scene?” Bruce asked hesitantly.

Tony looked at him with a fire in his eyes. “Yes, I did.”

Clint stared at the threshold, knowing he had to go after Tony.

“Uh, Clint? What was that all about?” Natasha asked, walking up to his side.

“I, uh—I gotta go.”

“Clint—”

“Don’t wait up for me, Nat!” he called out as he rushed down the stairs.

Natasha shook her head, looking wistfully at Steve. “Something’s up.”

Steve shrugged. “Tony sounded really upset. Maybe we should stay out of it until he calms down.”

Natasha sighed. “You’re too good, Rogers.”

 

“Stark!”

“Oh, god,” Tony breathed as he rushed down the stairs to his lab. He couldn’t let Clint catch up to him again.

“Tony, this is ridiculous.”

“Shut it, Banner, or I’m locking you out too.”

Tony hurriedly punched in the code to open the lab door, fumbling a bit when he heard Clint’s boots echoing off the walls.

“Jarvis, it’s me, let me—”

“What do you know about Borrowers, Tony?”

It was like every fiber in his body was frozen. He couldn’t even move his hand down from the keypad.  _I can’t put the kid through this again. I can’t put the kid through this again. I can’t…_

Bruce looked at Tony in horror. It was like watching a ticking time bomb, unsure of what was coming next and when.

Peter was breathing heavily, mostly from trying to keep still when Tony was practically running.

“How does… how does he know?” Peter muttered to himself, nervously looking up at Tony.

Tony took another breath before turning to face Clint. “I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Clint sighed. “Come on. I know he’s sitting in your pocket.”

Peter’s heart skipped a beat.  _Oh god, this is all my fault. This is what I get for wanting to meet the Avengers._

“Clint, you sound ridiculous,” Tony retorted. “That’s not even possible.”

“I can see him. Right now.”

Peter’s head was now sticking out of the pocket, looking straight at Clint. He was relatively short, but he looked like he was ready to hurt someone if he needed to. His eyes were scrunched in and he had short, brown hair that was stuck up in the front.

“Kid! What the hell are you doing?!” Tony said through clenched teeth, eyes moving between the Borrower and Clint.

“He knows about us, Mr. Stark! A-and there’s no point in trying to hide when he already knows. It will only end badly,” Peter said, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

Tony rubbed his face with his hands, resisting the urge to scream into them. He reached down and finished punching in the code to the lab. The door opened with a small  _whoosh_.

“Come on, Barton,” Tony said as he waved him inside. “I suppose I have a lot of explaining to do.”

“No, I think  _I’m_  the one who needs to explain,” Clint said, not addressing Tony at all. He was staring intently at Peter.

Tony put his hand to the pocket, allowing Peter to climb on before lowering him to the table. He hopped off and let out a deep sigh, relishing in the unlimited movement he now had. He looked back up at Clint, and surprisingly, he wasn’t scared. There was almost something… familiar about him.

Clint rolled over a seat and sat down near Peter.

“What’s your name, bud?” he asked gently.

“I-I’m Peter, sir,” he said, trying his best to sound mature. “Peter Parker.”

_Peter Parker… why does that sound familiar?_

“Nice to meet ya, Peter. I assume you already know my name?”

Peter nodded. There was an awkward pause, but he couldn’t hold in his curiosity.

“How do you know about Borrowers, Mr. Barton?”

Clint laughed. “Does he call you ‘Mr. Stark’?” he jokingly asked to Tony, who quickly nodded.

“That’s priceless,” Clint said, turning his attention back to Peter. He was happy to see him curious, not afraid.

“Kid, I don’t know how much you know about what I do, but I’m a government agent. It’s my job to know classified information. Including Borrowers.”

“Wait… so the government knows about us?” Peter asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

“Well, yes and no. I work for a division of the government called S.H.I.E.L.D. We specialize in espionage and counter-terrorism. We know things most people in the government don’t. Borrowers are one of things—and it’s deeply classified. This is probably unheard of for you, but once upon a time humans and Borrowers actually had contact with each other.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “No way!”

Clint nodded. “Way. It was limited, though. And it eventually evolved into a sort of unspoken thing; we would help Borrowers find places to live and in turn, those who were willing would send us back information on some important people we were keeping tabs on.”

Peter couldn’t help but smile. “There were Borrowers who were actually  _spies_? That is so freaking cool!”

Tony was leaning against one of his robots with his arms crossed, watching in the background as Clint and Peter hit it off like they were old buddies.

“This is weird,” Bruce remarked.

“Yeah, it is,” Tony grumbled. He was happy for the kid, though. He was learning all these things about his own race of people he was never taught or told.

“I’ve worked with Borrowers in the past. None recently, though, ever since I moved to New York for this whole Avengers gig. It’s nice to see one again,” Clint trailed off, talking more to himself than to Peter. Peter. Peter  _Parker._ Why did that sound so damn familiar?

“Anyway. Have you always lived here?”

Peter nodded. “Well, after my parents… I-I’ve been here since I can remember. I lived with a clan that really, really didn’t like me. A-and a few months ago I went out borrowing in the lab for parts a-and one of Mr. Stark’s machines caught me.”

Clint turned to Tony with a disgusted look on his face. “You set up  _Borrower traps_?”

Tony shrugged, not really having a good answer. “Well, not  _all of us_  have access to top-secret information, Barton.”

“I-It’s fine, really,” Peter interjected. “I—I’m glad Mr. Stark found me.” He turned up to Tony, sensing his anxiety. “He gave me a home.”

Clint raised an eyebrow. “Well, Stark, I must say I’m impressed. You’ve actually managed to make the kid like you.”

Peter’s heart was racing. He had so many questions for Clint. Just a few months ago, he couldn’t even fathom the possibility of humans discovering him. Now, he finds out that there are people— _an Avenger! —_ who may know more about Borrowers than even Peter does.

Peter opened his mouth to speak, but Clint had turned around to face Tony.

“How did you find out, anyway?”

“About Borrowers? The evidence was everywhere. Small things taken from the lab, things not being where I left them, all that stuff. Jarvis could never really figure out why. Probably an oversight in my programming. So I asked Jarvis to record the lab for a week and he got one on camera. Bruce still never believed me, though,” Tony said, making a face to his friend.

Clint turned to Bruce, eyebrow raised. “You knew too?”

“I-I mean, i-it always made sense, but I wasn’t totally convinced,” Bruce stammered, feeling awkward about the conversation with Peter right there.

“I wish you guys had told me about this sooner. He could have been real useful on some of our recon missions,” Clint said, gesturing toward the Borrower. Peter’s eyes lit up.  _Real useful?_

“Oh, no no no no NO,” Tony suddenly said, briskly walking over to Peter. Now he knew why Clint was  _really_  interested. He looked down and saw the pure joy in his eyes at the mere mention of going on a top-secret mission. And it scared the crap out of him.

“You are NOT taking him ANYWHERE outside this Tower. Nope. Never.”

Clint groaned, because he knew the feeling. Tony was impossible to deal with when he set his mind to something, and now that it involved a kid, well, that really complicated things.

“Tony, just listen for a second—”

“No! Because whatever you’re about to say will be so impossibly stupid I don’t even want to hear it. All you can think about is mission this, mission that. It’s dangerous enough for the kid to come to a freaking team meeting with me. Sending him out in the  _field_? Barton, that’s suicide. He wouldn’t last five minutes.”

Peter watched in agony as the two of them bickered. Clint would say something about Borrowers being the best at eavesdropping and Tony would shoot back at how getting caught would mean instant death. Bruce, who was awkwardly standing off to the side with no real opinion on the matter, slowly inched toward Peter.

“Why should they get to decide what I do?” Peter huffed, folding his arms. He turned up to Bruce. “Do they always do this?”

Bruce shook his head, smirking. “This is like their natural state.”

Peter couldn’t take it anymore. Grabbing his glove, he walked toward the edge of the table and aimed his hand at the robot a few feet behind Tony. Within seconds he was scaling the robot, sights set on the top.

“Hey!” he called out, expecting Tony and Clint to hear him. They didn’t.

“HEY!” he tried again. Nothing.

He could feel his blood boiling. “OH MY GOD, CAN YOU BOTH JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN?!”

Peter’s stomach dropped when the two humans whipped their head around, looking pissed and, in Clint’s case, confused. 

“Excuse me?” Tony said angrily.

Peter had never truly been at eye level with a human before, despite all the times Tony had lifted him up. He got up here all on his own, though, and for once, he wasn’t being looked down upon. He took a breath before straightening up.

“I-I know you’re just trying to do what’s best for me,” he said carefully, trying not to upset Tony even more. “And I appreciate that—really, I do. B-but i-it’s not fair that you get to stand here and act like you know what’s best for me when I’ve been covert my entire life. I-If I finally get to go out and  _do_ something—”

“Oh my god,” Tony grumbled, stomping over to a now-quivering Peter. He held his hand out. “Get down from there. I don’t want to hear this.”

“No, see, this is exactly what I’m talking about! Why can’t you just listen—”

“Why can’t I  _listen?”_ Peter flinched, and Tony dialed it back. _“_ Kid, this is your LIFE we’re talking about here. This isn’t some new gadget or invention idea. Use your head.”

Peter glared. “Then how come you said you wanted me to be a part of your life and now suddenly you want to just keep me stuck here?”

Tony sighed, pinching the brim of his nose. “Going out on a life-or-death mission and introducing you to the team are two  _completely_ different things, and you know it. I’m in a literal iron suit and I barely make it out of these HYDRA missions alive.”

“B-but you don’t even understand! I lost my parents when I was four years old. I was alone for months before I found a safe place to stay. My entire life is a life-or-death mission! Every time I went out to Borrow, it could have been my last time.”

Silence.

“I-It was my job to make sure the clan didn’t die. I-I’m more than capable of handling myself, Mr. Stark.”

Tony looked over to Clint, who had the beginnings of a shit-eating grin on his face. Any time he won an argument against Stark, it was his Christmas.

“Alright, well, tell me this _,_  short stuff. Just a few days ago you said you didn’t even want to  _meet_  more people. Now, correct me if I’m wrong but, isn’t getting guns shot at you a hell of a lot scarier than talking to someone?”

Peter thought about it. Why  _did_  the thought of missions excite him, but meeting the Avengers terrified him?

“I-I don’t know. Humans are  _scary_. They-they look at you a-and poke you and it’s just… I don’t know. I can’t really describe it.”

But he could  _feel_ it. When his hands got sweaty, when his chest felt tight, when his heart felt like it was beating in his throat. Being pinned under the gaze of a curious human was like being dissected alive.

“Peter,” Clint’s voice was nearly a whisper, noticing how anxious Peter looked. “If you really want to do this, you know we’re going to have to show—introduce,” he corrected, “you to the rest of the Avengers.”

Peter glanced back to Tony, whose eyes were wide and his eyebrows slightly scrunched, silently begging Peter to reconsider. But Tony knew he was partially right—it wasn’t like he wasn’t extremely adept and able to fend for himself. It was what HYDRA would do to him if he got caught that worried him.

“I-I know,” he replied lowly.

“And you’re sure you’re okay with that? Because once you’re in, well, you can’t get out.”

Peter shuffled through all the possible scenarios. Each one that resulted in him staying in the tower permanently, however, left him with a strange feeling of emptiness. Like something would be missing from his life.

“I… I’ve been hiding my whole life. And now I’ve just been sitting down in this lab and making all these cool gadgets I’ll never actually be able to use. I… I just want to  _help people_.”

Clint smiled warmly. “Well, Tony, it sounds like the kid just wants to help out. You really want to be the one to say no to  _this_ lil’ guy?”

Tony paused before letting out a defeated sigh. Using his fondness for Peter was a low blow, but it was a total Clint move. “You win, Barton.”

Clint let out a small cheer and gave his fist a small celebratory pump. “I’m going to go get the rest of the gang. Nat and Steve aren’t going to rest until they figure out why we were shouting at each other louder than usual after the meeting.”

Tony snorted, watching dimly as Clint left the room.

“Pete… you really think this is a good idea?” Bruce asked worriedly. “Missions aren’t all glorious and heroic. We get our asses handed to us plenty of times. It’s dangerous stuff.”

“I know what I want to do,” Peter mumbled, staring out at the ground. It was a long way down.

“No, kid, you don’t,” Tony said dryly, walking over to his workbench to continue making improvement to his suit.

Peter watched as Bruce gave him one last apprehensive look before heading over to his own work station. Peter took a seat on the robot, looking out at the room around him. He was so,  _so_  high up, and he had gotten there on his own. He thought it was what he wanted. He thought it would make him seem stronger. Older. Bigger.

But now, he really wasn’t sure anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy! peter wants to help ppl out so badly he's gonna do some dum shit!!!


	7. Mr. America

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> peter makes a new friend ! :)

Peter kept tapping his foot on the metal surface as his leg rapidly bounced up and down. He was turning over a small piece of metal in his hands, gripping it tight every time he sucked a breath in.

_I can’t believe I did that._

He tossed the metal back and forth, staring out at the lab where Tony and Bruce had their backs turned and their heads deep in their work.

_I shouldn’t have said that._

Clint would be back any minute with the rest of the Avengers. Thor. Captain America. Black Widow. Could there be a more intimidating group of people?

_I don’t want to do this anymore. I really don’t want to do this anymore. Tony was right. Bruce was right._

He took one look down to the floor and his stomach fluttered. He quickly stood up and got ready to get himself back down to the table before the lab door slid open. On instinct, Peter ran and hid behind a tall part of the robot, his hands shaking.  _I’m not ready for this._

A few seconds of silence passed before a voice spoke out.

“Pete? Buddy? It’s just me,” Clint called out. “Where’d ya go?”

Relieved, Peter slid out from his hiding spot, giving a shy wave when him and Clint made eye contact.

Clint had an endearing smirk on his face as he approached Peter. Peter’s eyes were locked on Clint, but his mind was anywhere but. All he wanted to do was tell Clint he changed his mind. That he wasn’t ready to meet a God, or a super solider, or another deadly assassin. That Tony and Bruce were right and that he should just hang out here—

“Do you need help getting down?” Clint asked a bit awkwardly.

Peter snapped out of his thoughts. He opened his mouth to say no, but the more he looked at the floor and out at the never-ending lab, his queasiness got the best of him.

“Y-yeah,” Peter stammered, using all fours to climb on Clint’s hand steadily.

“Now, listen,” Clint began, “If anyone starts to get too touchy, just say something and they’ll stop. Don’t feel bad. Tasha has seen Borrowers before, but the other two definitely haven’t.”

“D-did you t-tell them?”

Clint raised an eyebrow.

“I-I mean, did you tell them about me yet? Or-or are they just going to come down here and stare at me for a long time and—”

“Hey, bud, calm down,” Clint said softly. “I didn’t tell them yet. I wanted you to be the one to handle the situation.”

Peter didn’t even have time to formulate a response before the lab door slid open.

“Barton, are you kidding me? I don’t want all of them down here—” Tony whined before Bruce nudged him to stay quiet. The two of them had silently agreed to stay out of this for now so Peter wouldn’t be too overwhelmed.

Peter gripped Clint’s thumb as the rest of the Avengers entered the room. Steve was leading the pack, wearing a tight grey tee shirt and loose jeans. Thor had put his long hair into a bun and was wearing a baggy shirt and pants, and Natasha was donned in a black tank top and black sweatpants. Clint had told them to change into something casual.

“Well god damn, Clint, I didn’t know you and Tony were so buddy-buddy now,” Natasha teased, flashing a playful smile to Tony. Tony rolled his eyes and let out an unsatisfied  _hmph_.

“Guys, come on,” Steve pleaded. “Clint, why did you… uhh…”

It didn’t take long for Steve’s eyes to wander down to the Borrower sitting in Clint’s hand. He scrunched his eyes together, trying to make sure he wasn’t just seeing things. Peter was staring straight back, his grasp on Clint’s thumb becoming tighter and tighter as he tried to will himself out of having a panic attack in front of Captain America. Steve’s mouth was open ever so slightly as he began to bend down to get at eye level with this strange thing. It looked… shockingly human.

“Clint…” was all Steve could say. Both Thor and Natasha were now staring at Peter, albeit less taken aback than Cap. Natasha breathed out a silent “Ohhh” under her breath, now understanding what Clint and Tony were screaming about earlier. Thor had seen lots of things in his long life, but he had only ever heard of tiny people in other realms. His gaze was locked on the tiny human, simply watching his little movements.

Peter was trying to read the expression on Cap’s face. Should he say something? Introduce himself?

Steve was just trying to understand what he was seeing in front of him. He thought little people were just old folk tales his parents would read to him before bed. He had seen so much since coming out of the ice, but  _nothing_  like this. This person looked like he could be no more than 16, with unruly brown hair and a bright boyish face. Steve’s stomach clenched as he took notice to the anxious expression painted on the little guy’s face, his tiny jaw shaking and his eyes darting around, taking Steve in with as much fascination as he was exuding back. It shook him to his core how this tiny being could look so familiar and so foreign all at the same time. He was clearly fine sitting in a giant person’s hand, but why was he so nervous about seeing Steve?

 _Imagine what it’s like from his perspective,_ Steve responded to himself in his head.  _You would be terrified if you had to look at giant people too. Stop staring at him and introduce yourself!_

Slowly, Cap began to move his hand up to offer for a shake, but he suddenly realized how impractical that would be. Instead, he took his index finger and stuck it in front of the little guy, whose flinch made Steve’s heart sink.

Peter stared almost blankly at the giant finger in front of him.  _What is he doing_?

Above him, Clint let out a chuckle. He glanced over to Tony, who was covering his mouth to hide his amused smile, and almost lost it.

“Steve,” Clint laughed, “You don’t need to… hahaha, it’s fine. He doesn’t know what that is.”

Now blushing, Steve gingerly put his hand back to his side.  _How could he not know what a handshake is?_

Peter took a deep breath, almost taking comfort in Steve’s discomfort. “I—I’m Peter,” he said, his voice cracking. He kept talking. “I—I’ve heard a lot about you, Mr. America—I—I mean, Captain Steve—I—I mean—”

Tony huffed a laugh from his workbench, now completely invested in the most awkward interaction he’s ever witnessed.

“Tony… be nice…” Bruce whispered with a small smile, but even Bruce was enjoying it. This was too good.

Steve chuckled softly gave Peter an endearing smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Peter,” he said warmly.

The two stared at each other, perhaps for a bit too long. Peter just couldn’t get over the fact that he was meeting  _Captain America_ , and Cap couldn’t get over the fact that he was actually looking at a fully functional tiny person. Natasha was the one who broke the silence.

“How long have you known?” She was addressing Clint.

Clint tilted his head over to Tony. “You should ask him.”

Natasha turned to Tony, who was still not over Peter saying “Mr. America.”

“Stark?”

Tony sighed. “He wandered in here a few months ago, maybe. I haven’t been keeping a tally.”

“You’ve known about him for  _months_  and didn’t tell anyone?!”

“Well, uh…” Bruce shyly piped up. “Not exactly…”

Natasha’s eyes grew wide. “You told  _Banner_?”

“Sorry, didn’t realize I had to report everything to the all-powerful Natasha Romanov,” Tony shot back.

Before Natasha could retaliate, Clint stopped them. “We’ve already had this argument, Tash. Can we just…” he stopped, gesturing toward Peter, who was nervously eyeing the arguing Avengers.

Thor spoke up from the back of the room. “I have heard stories of the brave little people who traverse the other realms, but I have never seen one before with my own eyes.” He walked over next to Steve and took a knee. “It is an honor to meet you, little Peter,” Thor said, giving his head a small bow. “Your people have my great respect. I imagine it is difficult to survive in this world as you do.”

Peter rubbed the back of his neck, searching for the right response. What was he supposed to say to an actual  _God_? ‘Gee, thanks’?

“Y-yeah… it’s, uh, it’s not easy,” he stuttered.  _Oh my god, I’m so pathetic. That’s all I can think of to say?_

Thor kept going. “I have heard that your people possess heightened senses and superb agility. Is this true?”

Peter nodded. “It’s always seemed normal to me, but, yeah, I-I guess so.”

Thor shot up, now grinning ear-to-ear. “I shall return,” he proclaimed, exiting the lab and running up the stairs in a flash.

Everyone watched in confusion as Thor ran off to do who-knows-what. Peter’s gaze shifted back to Steve, who was still mere feet away from him. Looking at him in the flesh, he didn’t know what to think anymore. He was afraid to ask his permission to join him on missions.  _What if he laughs in my face? What if he brushes me off like I’m nothing? What if he thinks I’m crazy?_ But seeing how warm he was in person, it only made him want to team up with the Avengers more. So as soon as Steve turned his attention back to Peter, he froze.

“So, Peter…” Cap started, but he suddenly felt uncomfortable bending down. “Clint, can we go sit down or something?”

Clint turned to Tony. “Hey, Iron Brain, you got a table down here that’s not covered with junk?”

Before Tony could respond to Clint’s snark, Peter jumped in. “I—it’s fine, I lounge around here all the time,” he said, pointing to the table where his scraps lay. Clint shrugged, turned around and placed Peter down, and Steve watched in wonder as Peter scampered off Clint’s hand and onto the table. He began to take notice of all the tiny scraps strewn around, and as he took a seat, his eyes fell upon one of Peter’s projects.

“Did you build that?” he asked, pointing to the tiny cuffs that were his web shooters.

Peter nodded. “A-and these,” he said, pulling his gloves off his hands.

 _Wow,_  Cap thought to himself,  _I didn’t even notice he was wearing those…_

“What are they?” he said in awe as Peter held them out for Cap to see. Steve let out a small  _Wow_  as Peter dropped the tiny gloves in his hands.

“They’re like, electromagnetic gloves. I can stick to anything with them. And cling onto something from any distance.”

Steve didn’t even hear what Peter said. He was too occupied with the fact that his skin didn’t even feel the tiny gloves sitting on them. They were impossibly small.  _This kid is impossibly small._

“How old are you, Peter?” Steve asked, sticking his hand out to give Peter his gloves back.

“F-fifteen.”

“And you can build stuff like this?” he turned to Tony. “He’s like a mini you.”

Tony suppressed a smile. “One could say.”

Peter smiled as Steve continued to ask questions. The two were swapping facts about their daily lives: How Steve trains and works for S.H.I.E.L.D; how Peter used to get by on a daily basis. Steve was especially curious as to how such small beings were able to live full lifespans with such limited resources, but the more Peter said, the more Cap realized that Borrowers were just like humans, only smaller.

Natasha leaned over to Clint, who was standing behind Steve with a satisfied smile.

“Oh god, I’ve seen that look before,” she said. “You’re not thinking about—”

“Yes I am.”

“But the last time you did—”

Clint gave her a death stare. “It doesn’t matter. This kid is different. I’ve never seen any Borrower move like him before.”

Nat sighed. “Clint, I can’t believe you sometimes. You want to put this kid in danger because you can’t swallow your damn pride?”

Clint closed his eyes and groaned. “Nat, come on. We can do this another time, okay? Just look.” The two watched Peter and Steve for a moment, happily talking. Peter was showing Steve all the things he built, and Tony had finally walked over and pointed out the things that Peter had helped him out on. Steve was watching in half fascination, half satisfaction. He was happy that Tony was able to bond so well with Peter.

“The kid’s getting along so well with him.”

“Yeah, I was afraid Rogers would be a little  _too_  freaked out.”

Pause.

“The kid wants to do this, Tash. He told me.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow.

“I’m serious! He has a real desire to help people. He acts a lot bigger than he is.”

Peter had run out of breath explaining everything to Steve. But it was all worth it.

“What’s it like, Mr. Rogers?”

“What’s what like? And please, just call me Steve.”

“Going out there. Fighting all the time. Having super strength. And that shield! It must be so cool to—”

Steve held up his hand. “It’s just my job to help people.” That was the short answer he gave everyone who asked him the same question. Rarely did he sit around and consciously think about his upgraded body; he just knew what he had to do with it.

Peter sucked in a deep breath.  _Inhale_. There was no better time to ask than now, but he just couldn’t bring himself to. It seemed so silly, asking someone like Steve if a three-inch-tall person could become an Avenger.

Tony glanced down at Peter, who was nervously shuffling his feet. Steve, of course, didn’t even notice, but Tony sighed, knowing exactly what was going through Peter’s head. He knew if Peter ever got hurt, he would be responsible. But seeing how well him and Steve got along, and how Thor got so excited that he literally left the room for God knows what reason…

“You know, you two aren’t so different,” Tony said with an almost teasing tone.

_Exhale._

The two looked at Tony, who wasn’t done. “Yeah, sure, one of you is a few inches tall and the other is a genetically modified super solider, but it’s the heart that counts, right?”

Steve blinked. “I’m not following.”

Tony sighed. “The kid’s exactly like you, Rogers. He doesn’t care that he’s small. He just wants to help people.”

Peter flashed Tony a surprised look, and Tony just nodded. He wanted to protect Peter desperately, but he couldn’t just keep him locked up in his lab like the kid didn’t have his own free will. Besides, Tony had a plan.

After a moment of Steve digesting Tony’s words, it suddenly clicked. The whole reason Clint brought him down here in the first place. He absentmindedly stared at Peter, his head swirling with thoughts:  _Is Clint crazy? Why would we put a 15-year-old kid in danger? Why would we put a TINY HUMAN in danger? I can’t believe Tony would be so rash and go along with this._

He didn’t want to hurt Peter’s feelings. He really didn’t. But he couldn’t be responsible for putting Peter in harm’s way.

“Peter, I…” he started, but Peter cut him off.

“I know what you’re gonna say. That I’m too small, a-and I’ll get hurt easily. But I can do it! I’ve been sneaking around all my life and I’ve never been caught…” Tony raised his eyebrow and Peter let out a small laugh; technically, he was caught by Tony, but it never  _felt_  like he was caught. It felt like he was found. “A-anyway, I-I don’t need to be out there punching people or anything. I… I just want to help, you know? In any way I can. I-I just want a chance.”

Tony crossed his arms, almost impressed with how well Peter was handing the situation with Steve, given what had transpired only mere minutes ago.

 _A chance. I just want a chance,_ Steve repeated in his head.  _Just give me a chance._

Steve sighed and pursed his lips before looking back down to Peter, his wide eyes glowing as he awaited an answer.

“Alright, kiddo,” Steve said with a small smile. Carefully, he took his index finger and moved it down toward the Borrower, who was no longer scared. He lightly tapped his shoulders like he was knighting him, which was slightly unnerving to Cap until he saw Peter beaming.

“Looks like you’re an Avenger now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the kudos and comments!!! they really make my day and motivate me to make each chapter even better than the last. it means so much to me! i hope to post maybe two or three chapters before next friday. we'll see :)))


	8. Whiskey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Bruce have a heart-to-heart.

“I have returned!”

Everyone turned their heads as Thor entered the room. His arms were full of… a lot of junk.

“Thor, buddy…” Clint started.

“What  _is_  all that?” Tony finished.

Thor raised an eyebrow as he dropped all the objects onto the nearest table. “I have gathered items from upstairs to set up a course for little Peter.”

“A course?” Natasha questioned.

Thor nodded. “If he is to join us on missions, he must train.”

Thor cleared the table and began setting up all the objects he brought down—a stapler, some books, straws. Peter watched in disbelief—did he say  _train_?

“How did you even know we agreed to let him go on missions?” Steve asked, now standing up. “You left the room 15 minutes ago.”

Thor raised an eyebrow. “I merely assumed he would be joining us, seeing as he is a Borrower.”

Peter’s heart was racing. In the span of an hour, he had met two people who apparently knew more about Borrowers than he did. He couldn’t believe he had been so nervous about meeting people before this. These guys were  _great_.

“A-am I really going to train with you guys?!” Peter said excitedly.

Thor looked over and smiled. “Of course. I believe you can be a tremendous secret weapon against our enemies. If we play it right, they will never even find out of your existence.”

Two months ago, those words would have shaken Peter to his core. But this time, they went in one ear and out the other. He was  _excited._

Everyone watched silently as Thor stacked random objects together. It didn’t look like much when he started, but by the time he finished, he had put together an intricate obstacle course fit for a Borrower. He walked over to Peter’s table, looking down at him before holding his hand palm-up next to his side.

“May I?” he asked kindly. Peter tensed for a moment, but nodded, and Thor placed his hand next to Peter, who climbed on in a hurry.

Everyone watched as Thor explained to Peter how he should get through the course. Everyone, that is, except Tony, who was able to quietly slip out of the room amid the calamity without anyone but Bruce noticing.

_Screw Clint. Screw Rogers. Screw them all. This is ridiculous._

Bruce watched with flaring concern as Tony went upstairs without so much as a “Where you going?” from everyone else. They didn’t even notice. They were too busy watching Peter jump over some pencils. Quietly, he followed his friend out.

 

“Tony…”

Bruce slowed as he observed Tony pouring himself a glass of whiskey. He sat down at the bar, defeated.

“Tony, are you okay?”

Tony took a long sip, closing his eyes as the smooth taste of his drink flowed down his throat. He let out a deep sigh, the sting of the whiskey feeling calm in his stomach. He swirled the glass around, watching the liquid swish around like a tornado along the edges of the glass. He found himself paying more and more attention to the little things lately—like the bubbles floating up to the surface of the whiskey, or the way his fingers twitch and fidget when he gets on edge. How his leg lightly bounces up and down when he thinks for too long.

Bruce took a seat next to his friend, folding his hands together on top of the bar.

“Do you… want to talk about it?”

Silence.

“I’m with you on this, you know. I don’t think it’s a great idea.”

Tony clenched his hand so hard he thought the glass would shatter.

“Yeah, well, captain moral high ground is cool with it just because he used to be as small as Peter,” Tony huffed, “So the decision’s already been made.”

Bruce took a breath to speak, but Tony cut him off.

“And Thor’s on his side too. Hell, even  _Clint_  knows more about Peter than I do.”

“What? No, that’s ridiculous, Tony. They’ve known Peter for 30 minutes and he’s been with you for six months.”

Tony slammed his glass town, little droplets of whiskey falling onto his hand.

“You don’t get it, do you? They don’t care about  _Peter_. They don’t care about what he likes. They only care that he’s three freaking inches tall and can build stuff. That he can  _help them_. He’s an object to them, Bruce. A… a thing they can use as a tactical advantage.”

Bruce raised an eyebrow. “You wanted him to meet everybody. You had to have known this was going to happen.”

“I know, I know!” Tony was almost shouting now. “I didn’t think it’d go like… like  _this_.”

 _How would you feel if a giant person just reached down, a-and snatched you up like you were nothing?_  Peter’s words from a few days ago echoed in his head.  _If you had to sit there helplessly and wonder what was going to happen to you next? How would you feel?!_

Sure, the kid had sat in his pocket since then. It was really impossible for Tony not to carry him at least twice per day. But every time he touched Peter, he couldn’t help but feel like he was  _dangerous_. Like he was a giant in his own world, stumbling over cars and bumping into buildings and that every breath he took was the equivalent of a hurricane devastating a small island. His stomach clenched every time he looked down at his own feet on the floor, like one day he was going to see Peter down there, looking as small as a tourist on the streets below, screaming something Tony could never hear because he was too far away. Because he was too  _big_.

He twiddled his thumbs, trying to imagine what such a small and simple action looked like to a Borrower. How could this be terrifying? How  _was_  this terrifying? Everything happened so fast. All Peter wanted to do was see an Avengers meeting, and it spiraled into this shitshow where sliding in between a stapler and a roll of tape was a training exercise. He couldn’t believe he had fucked up this badly. And the only reason Tony went along with any of this is because he didn’t want to make Peter feel like a prisoner. Like a...

 _“Tony_.”

He always froze when Bruce spoke so sternly.

“You gotta snap out of it, man. I know it’s hard to watch, but—”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

Bruce stopped. “What are you talking about?”

Tony sighed, tracing his finger along the rim of his glass. “I should have never told him to stay.”

There was a pause before Bruce responded. “Tony, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“When I first caught him, he told me about how his parents were killed a long time ago and that he was with some clan who hated his guts. Heh, it was all a bit too familiar for me. I told him he should stay with me, that it would be better that way.”

“Yeah, well, hasn’t it been? You really helped him out—”

“But here’s the thing!” Tony said, now standing up. “He’s not like any ordinary kid, I can’t just leave him alone in a room. But one day he’s going to hit an age where being babied is going to get old. He’s going to want to leave and I don’t think I can allow that to happen.”

All Bruce could do was stare.

“And what right do I have? Because I’m 5′-9″ and he’s the size of my finger?”

Bruce leaned over and put his hand on Tony’s shoulder. He always found that calmed him down.

“Tony, why are you even thinking about this right now? I mean, no offense, but we have more important things to worry about right now, with HYDRA and all.”

Tony huffed a laugh. “You say that like I haven’t thought this the moment I caught the kid.”

Bruce thought for a while. It was quite the moral dilemma… how do you protect someone without demeaning them? Or making them feel trapped? Bruce certainly didn’t have the answer. Neither did Tony. Neither did anyone.

“Tony. Listen to me. If there’s anyone who knows what it’s like to feel too dangerous around other people, it’s me. And Hulk sees  _everyone_  as tiny and inferior. I know you don’t see Peter that way. And I doubt the rest of them do, either.”

Tony let the words sink in as Bruce kept talking.

“We just need to focus on this next mission, okay? We—you can talk with Peter about this once it’s all done. But this is gonna be a tough one. We’re gonna need all hands on deck, and whether we like it or not… now we got Peter’s hands, too.”

Tony looked at Bruce for a moment, studying his face, before taking a seat back down in front of his drink. He lightly tapped the side of the glass and watched as the drink rippled out from the middle. He slowly lifted it to his lips and gulped down the rest, letting out a satisfied “aah.”

“Hmm, sounds like you’re asking me to bury my deeply insecure thoughts and feelings while I engulf myself in my work.” A smile grew across Tony’s face. “Why didn’t you just say that sooner?”

Bruce smirked. “There’s the Tony Stark I know.”

They were about to turn to go back down when a voice spoke out from the top of the stairs.

“That is the sappiest I think I will ever see you two get.”

Bruce flushed red. “N-Natasha! We were just—”

“How long were you standing there?” Tony interrupted, crossing his arms.

“Long enough to know you have a heart, Stark,” Natasha teased as she walked over to them. She gestured toward the stairs. “You guys gotta come back down, though. There’s something you need to see.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really love tony so much u guys. but for those peter lovers, we will return to him in the next chapter. and thanks everyone for all the kudos, comments and hits! i'm so honored you all like the story so much, it warms my heart


	9. Leaping high

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter tries the obstacle course set up for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im going away on vacation today so this might be the last update for a few weeks!

“May I?”

Peter stared up,  _straight up,_ at Thor. He had never seen a human that big before. He didn’t even think it was possible to get any bigger than Tony. But, Peter reasoned, Thor wasn’t really a human. And Steve was... modified. 

He stared at the palm which seemed miles above him, knowing exactly what Thor’s intentions were: Carry him over from his table to the other. Peter shuddered at the thought of being groped by unfamiliar fingers, but he found it intriguing that Thor asked permission before he even set his hand down. Slowly, Peter nodded, feeling the burning stares of the other Avengers. Thor smiled reassuringly, as if to say ‘Good choice, kid!’ as he set his hand down next to Peter. He scurried on, not wanting this to last any longer than it had to.

When he was brought over to the obstacle course, he let out a gasp so audible that it got a chuckle out of Thor. This—this was  _nothing_  compared to the heaps of scrap metal. These were contraptions he had never even  _seen_  before. Everything was intricately stacked; books creating tunnels, rolls of tape set up like tires to step through, even something resembling the metal mountain.

“Do you like it, little one?” Thor asked, taking a seat next to Clint.

All Peter could do was eagerly nod as he walked up to inspect the course.

“The object is to get through faster each time. First, I’m going to leave everything the way it is, but as you progress, I will start swinging things and making it more difficult.”

Thor went into more detail, but Peter unintentionally tuned him out. The more he began to stare at the objects and see them as giant human tools rather than obstacle course parts, it freaked him out a bit.

“…eter? Peter? Are you alright?”

Clint had cut Thor off, noticing the look on his face.

“Y-yeah, yeah, it’s just… this is crazy, Mr. Thor,” Peter said, turning up to the god. “H-how did you even… know what to do?”

Again, Thor chuckled.  _That must be something he does a lot._

“Like I said before, I have never met someone of your kind, but I have heard stories. I’ve been waiting for the day I would finally meet a Borrower and get to see their real strength.”

Peter nodded.

“Now, whenever you are ready, you can go ahead and start here,” Thor pointed at the entrance, “and I’ll count you down. “It should take no more than two minutes on the first try.”

 _No more than two minutes?_  Peter thought.  _Pressure’s on._

It had been a long, long time since Peter had done any sort of sneaking around. He hadn’t run from a rat in ages. His palms began to sweat as he started to think about all the ways he could fail and embarrass himself.

Nobody wanted to rain on Thor’s parade, but Natasha and Steve were a little skeptical that this was the safest way to start his training. Clint especially could tell that Peter was apprehensive.

“Hey, bud,” Clint whispered, leaning close but not too close. “Just do what you would normally do, alright? Nobody’s gonna judge ya if you’re a little rusty.”

Peter gave a small “hmph” before wiping his hands on his pants as he approached the beginning. He bounced around a little, trying to channel memories of what it was like to run. He thought back to some of the first days he had to live without his family; the worst fear he’s ever felt. The most regret he’s ever felt. And whenever Peter felt that regret, he ran from it. Metaphorically, literally, spiritually. He never dwelled on it too much; he couldn’t afford to. But now, something inside him was different. The Avengers… they’ve treated him in a way he thought he would never experience again. They made him feel… good about himself. He felt smart. He felt fast. He was going to do this for his old family and his new family.

He was—

“Ready?” Thor asked.

Peter gave him a thumbs-up, mind set on the course in front of him.

“Okay, and… GO!”

As soon as Thor said those words, Peter started so fast he almost slipped. First, there were rolls of tape he had to step through, which he did in a flash. He could feel the adrenaline shooting through his veins, pulsing through his legs and arms as they swung wildly behind him. Next, there were at least a dozen pencils laid out in front of him like logs. Looking above him, he noticed that whatever layer of course was above, parts of the material were hanging down. Taking a leap, he hopped on and off the first pencil with such a light, fast touch that it barely moved. He grabbed a hanging piece of the material above him, which turned out to be pages of a book, and swung himself forward to another pencil a few inches in front of him. He landed on both his feet, causing the pencil to fly backward and fling Peter forward. His legs flailing, he reached out for another page of the book. His fingers scraped on the edge, but he missed and fell straight to the ground.

He rolled forward past the rest of the pencils, flipping to his feet and skidding to a stop. His head whipped to the left to the next opening of the course, leaping through a roll of tape before disappearing into a tunnel of books.

“Wow,” Steve breathed. It had only been a few seconds, but Peter cleared the first leg of the course without a hitch. He thought for sure he was going to slip up on the pencils.

Peter raced through the pitch-black tunnel. He had no idea how, but he somehow knew exactly where the turns were without being able to see a thing. He could just… feel it.

He emerged on the other side and came face-to-face with something he’s dreaded all his life: A stapler. Those things were instant killers. He skidded to a stop, trying to figure out what the next move was. It was just a stapler next to a dead end.  _This can’t be it, can it?_

Peter’s eyes darted up and he realized what he had to do. “Oh, you gotta be kidding me,” he panted to himself as he backed up to gain momentum. “You can do this, Peter, you can do this,” he repeated to himself. He took a deep breath before breaking out into a full run, leaping high to use the top of the stapler like a springboard to reach the second level. As soon as his feet left the ground, he let out a gasp and nearly lost control. He hadn’t jumped that high in...

“Holy shit,” Clint whispered to Nat, watching in pure awe as Peter leapt higher than he anticipated. “If this was on a human scale—”

“We wouldn’t even be able to jump that high,” Nat finished, before turning to Steve. “Well, maybe you could.”

The top level was extremely wobbly, and that was probably the point. Peter couldn’t all-out sprint on this one; he had to be careful. He noticed that there was nothing supporting the middle of the paperback he was standing on, so he ran along the edges where there was something under. He did this the whole way, taking note to the fact that Thor, who had the biggest smile on his face, had switched up which sides had support and which ones didn’t. And Peter picked up on it in seconds.

When he got past the books, he finally reached the final task—the big, heaping pile of scraps that he could only assume he had to get to the top of. He jumped up to the biggest piece of material he could see, using that as a starting point.

“Get to the top and then you’re all done!” Thor said excitedly, but Peter didn’t even hear him. His ears were ringing purely from the energy he was exerting. His chest was burning, but he actually liked how it felt. It meant he was winning.

It took Peter 30 seconds to scale the mountain. This was  _way_  easier than trying to climb a table or get back up to a vent—there were footholds and rough surfaces he could grip to. When he finally reached the top, his legs nearly collapsed from under him. On instinct, Thor stuck his hand out and caught Peter before he could plummet back down to the table. Peter didn’t even have the mental capacity to be freaked out by being caught by a giant hand.

“Peter, that was excellent!” Thor beamed, much too loud. “That… surpassed all expectations I had about Borrowers. If all of your kind are as fast, agile and quick-thinking as you are, I can see why you have managed to stay hidden for as long as you have.”

“One minute and 46 seconds,” Steve said, the corner of his lips curled up. He didn’t expect Peter to be able to do that so well. He was… proud?

Peter was being flooded by compliments from everyone. “Told you he’s not like any Borrower we’ve ever seen!” Clint said, elbowing Natasha playfully. “That was impressive, kid,” Steve said like a proud dad.

 _Kid_.

Peter looked around frantically for Tony, but he—and Bruce!—were nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, all of Peter’s good feelings were sucked away. Tony didn’t even stay to watch.

“Are you ready to go again?” Thor asked, taking note to how exhausted Peter looked.

“W-what? Y-yeah, sure,” Peter wasn’t even sure what question he just answered.

“Excellent! One minute and 46 seconds is the time to beat, then,” Thor said, placing Peter back at the start. “This time, though, I’m going to be swinging some pencils around and…”

Peter went through the course six more times before he physically could not move. He had gotten his time down to one minute and 30 seconds, even with Thor’s added obstacles. He even added a new layer of books and made the leaps more difficult.

There was still no Tony or Bruce to be seen. He had tried to ignore it the first seven times, but for some reason, on try number eight, he couldn’t get over it.  _I can’t believe both of them aren’t even seeing this. They don’t think I can do this! But I’m doing it right now and they’re not even_ here!

His adrenaline was quickly replaced by anger as Thor prepped him to go through the course one final time.

“If you can beat one minute and 30 seconds, it will be a tremendous victory,” he said in his Thor way. Peter didn’t care. None of this mattered if Tony and Bruce weren’t here to see it.

Suddenly, though, he thought back to his family. How all of the things Peter has done since their death, they’ve never seen either. How his old clan, full of people who detested him, constantly picked on him and berated him for not being good enough since he was all alone. But Peter still gave it his all, tried his best and succeeded. Why should  _Tony and Bruce_  be any different? Tony didn’t even see Peter like a real person, right? He was just some thing he could grab onto when he wanted?

“Peter? Are you ready?”

Thor snapped him back out of it. Now more determined than ever, he didn’t even acknowledge the rest of the group’s encouragement. He just wanted to crush this course.

“Ready… and… go.”

There was something newfound in Peter on this turn. Nobody knew what it was or what happened, but Peter was dodging everything and moving so gracefully it almost looked choreographed. He didn’t notice Natasha’s small gasp, followed by her running upstairs to get Tony and Bruce. He didn’t notice when the two scientists came back down the stairs, eyes wandering until they locked onto Peter, leaping and bounding and running faster than they thought he could.

When he made it back to the top, he still didn’t notice the two extra people. He only looked at Steve for his time.

“Well Peter, that  _was_  impressive…”

Peter’s heart sank. He had failed.

“…and with a RECORD TIME of one minute and 28 seconds, you have officially shown this course who’s boss!”

Peter could hardly contain his elation. He did this all by himself.

“Thank you so much for putting this all together Mr. Thor! It was so hard but so awesome! Back with the stapler I never thought I would be able to—”

And that’s when his eyes fell to Tony and Bruce, staring at Peter with a new kind of fascination. What was that look—bewilderment? Admiration? Peter didn’t know.

After a few awkward beats of silence, Tony took a few steps forward.

“Well kid, I gotta say, never in my life did I think you would be able to leap through rolls of tape with the grace of a dolphin. Yet here we are!”

Peter actually let out a small laugh. That was a real Tony Stark compliment.

“Are you hungry?” he turned to the group. “Are we all hungry? I can’t quite place why, but I have an absolute  _burning_  craving for some shawarma.”

Everyone laughed lightly, getting up from their chairs and shifting the discussion to what movie they should watch with dinner. Tony stayed behind as the rest went upstairs, waiting for the last footstep on the stairs before he spoke.

“Look, kid, I—”

“It’s alright, Mr. Stark,” Peter cut him off. “I know you don’t want me doing this. B-but I’m really good at it. And everyone else seems to think I’m fully capable. So, yeah.”

 _Good job, Peter. That was a real shitty speech you gave there_.

Tony sighed. If Peter didn’t even want an apology, he wasn’t going to give him one.

“Let’s go get some food, alright?” he said, holding his hand out for the Borrower. “You’ve gotta be starving.”

Peter nodded as he slowly took a seat in Tony’s hand, the two going up to the kitchen in silence. He didn’t know what shawarma was, but he was eager to try it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so ive always had this thought where a borrower would like do an obstacle course through a bunch of human stuff? and i just really wanted to do it with peter lmao. thank u everyone for the wonderfully nice comments you leave me! they make my day every time :')


	10. Let's talk about it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a quick entry with some backstory thrown in there...

Strangely enough, Peter was more excited to see the rest of the Avengers than he was to be stuck with Tony. As soon as Tony got upstairs, he was practically itching to just walk around the counter and hang out with everybody.

Of course, as soon as he remembered how freaking big everyone was, he got a little less excited.

“JARVIS!” Tony shouted as he placed his hand down on the counter. “The usual?”

“You got it, sir,” the AI responded. “The order has been put in.”

“Damn, that quickly?” Natasha quipped.

“We do eat there a lot,” Cap replied.

“I think we’re keeping it in business,” Tony said with a smirk. “I’m gonna out and get our food. You gonna be alright down there, kiddo?”

Peter nodded and stuck his thumb up, hoping that Tony could see.

“IIIII’ll take that as a yes,” Tony said. He turned the corner and bounded up the stairs, leaving Peter with the rest of the team.

“So…” Cap tried. “Clint was just telling us a bit about borrowers.”

“O-Oh yeah?” Peter asked. He wasn’t even all that scared—at this point, he was just curious as to how Clint knew so much.

“Yeah,” Clint’s raspy voice broke through, “I was just telling ‘em how you guys are, like, the  _perfect_  spies.”

“I had no idea there was a secret S.H.I.E.L.D division just for you guys,” Steve said.

“Your people must be quite honorable,” Thor added.

Peter nodded. He didn’t want them to know that this was his first time learning about all of this, too.

“W-What else did you say?” Peter asked.

“Well, some of the most vital information the US government has ever obtained has been by borrowers. You ever heard of Watergate?”

“No, actually,” Peter mumbled.

“I know Tony isn’t too hot about you going on missions, but it sounds like you’re born for this role,” Natasha said with a small smile.

“Well, a few more runs through that course and I think we can introduce you to Fury!” Clint said happily.

“Wait, who’s—"

“Food’s here!”

_Tony really picks the worst times to show up,_  Peter thought. He stared in awe as the giant brought in huge bags, filled to the brim with containers of food.

“Allllrighty, I’ve got something for everyone here!” he laid it out on the table and watched in amusement as the hungry superheroes dove for the food as if they hadn’t eaten in days. Tony, container in hand, sat at the counter next to Peter.

“I figured you could eat out of my box,” he said, scooping a spoonful of food onto a napkin. “If you want more, ask me and I’ll get it for you. I don’t want your little fingerprints all over my shawarma. I don’t want this to turn into the Chinese food incident again.”

Peter, ignoring Tony’s comment, was already face-deep into his pile of food. Sure, Tony had ordered takeout, but he had never eaten  _this_  food before.

“Jeez, that kid can really eat, huh?” Steve leaned over and whispered to Clint, who laughed.

“Little guy’s got a big stomach,” he chuckled.

It seemed as though everyone else had a big stomach too, because by the time every last bit had been eaten, everyone was stuffed.

“I was gonna suggest we play Monopoly and let Peter be his own piece, but boy, am I  _stuffed_ ,” Tony said. Everyone else grumbled in agreement.

“Aw, man, I love being my own piece,” Peter pouted.

“I dunno about you boys, but mama needs her rest,” Natasha said, pushing herself up from the couch. Bruce, Thor and Steve were in silent agreement. Tony could not have been more relieved as all of them branched off to their respective rooms.

“I’ve got some extra work I want to do down in the lab,” he said, turning down to Peter. “Wanna join?”

Peter’s eyes lit up, but they flashed over to Clint cleaning up the mess in the living room for long enough for the hesitation to be felt.

“That’s fine, kid. You don’t have to be in the lab with me at all times,” Tony snipped. “Tell Jarvis if you need anything.”

Peter watched as Tony bounded downstairs. He was probably still pissed.

That just left Clint.

“You’re lucky, Peter,” Clint said with about 20 boxes in his arms. “You don’t ever have to be stuck with cleanup duty.”

Peter laughed quietly, but his mind was a hurricane of questions he still had for Clint. But in the eye of the storm was a central question that Peter didn’t even realize he wanted to ask until now.

“Uh, M-Mr. Clint?”

“I  _told_  you, bud,” Clint said as he threw every box into the recycling bin. “Drop the mister. Just Clint is fine.”

“O-okay… C-Clint…”

Clint sat down in front of Peter, trying to seem as small as possible so he didn’t loom over him too much.

“Y-You said that you know about a lot of borrowers.”

“That’s right.”

“A-And you know a lot about t-this area right? O-of the… world?”

“New York? The insanely famous New York? Yeah, I may know a thing or two.”

Peter gulped in air.

“Do you… do you know anything about my family?”

Clint fell silent. Peter kept going.

“My parents’ names were Richard and Mary. Parker. They always used to go out borrowing and sometimes they would be gone for days. I didn’t get it, but they always came back with all this stuff so I never complained! And then one day they just… never came back. I-I don’t know what happened.”

Clint’s mind was racing for the right thing to say. 

“A-and we lived with my aunt and uncle, too. Ben and May. They were in a building close by. It was nice. Most borrowers don’t get to live with a big family.”

The knot in Clint’s stomach was growing larger.

“They… I don’t know what happened to them, Clint! I don’t know what happened to  _any_  of them! Nothing is out of the ordinary and then all of a sudden my whole  _family_  is gone and I’m wandering around this giant, scary city alone!”

Pause.

“Five years ago. It was… five years ago. Ben and May were taking care of me after my parents disappeared. Something happened… th-the human must have found us, I don’t know. But May brought me to a new building and told me to wait there for her. And I waited for two days. And she never came back, Clint. She never came back.

“A-And none of it even makes sense! Something has been wrong for years now and there’s nothing I can do about it! No matter who I meet or how high I jump or where I go… I won’t be able to change anything.”

Clint was floored. Not just because Peter was telling him all this so openly, but because there were parts to this story he had never known before.

_What were you thinking, Peter! Why would you tell this weird human your whole life story! You haven’t even told this to Tony or Bruce yet. Why does_ Clint _get to know?!_

“I-I’m sorry,” Peter stuttered. “I-I don’t know why I just… I’m sorry.”

Peter turned around, curling his legs up and burying his face in his knees. Of all the crazy things that have happened over the last half year, he’s never before felt so small.

Clint sighed as Peter scrunched up. He leaned his head down to the counter.

“Hey.”

Peter didn’t move.

“Peter… you don’t have to apologize for anything. I can’t imagine what you’ve had to go through. I know borrowers have it rough, buddy, a-and I’m sorry I’ve made you feel like you have such a cool life. I get it.”

Peter hiccupped as a tear rolled down his cheek. At least Clint acknowledged that.

“But I haven’t been being totally honest with you.”

That made Peter turn around. He ignored how huge Clint looked with his head resting on the table. “W-What are you—”

Before Clint could even speak, the two were interrupted by the sound of Tony’s heavy footsteps running up the stairs.

“Oh, thank god you two are still here,” he said in between big breaths. He took a moment to collect himself.

“Something really, really bad is happening.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY YALL IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I HAVE UPDATED BUT I AM TRYING TO GET INTO THE SWING OF THINGS AGAIN. this semester at school has kicked my ass and thank god it's almost over. i WILL finish this story so do NOT put down your remote


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